A cross-sectional study on smoking behavior and nicotine dependence among workers in Guangzhou

OBJECTIVE: To investigate smoking behavior and nicotine dependence (ND), so as to provide evidence for tobacco control in workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study to investigate smoking behavior and ND in 668 workers with different job assignment in Guangzhou. Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence and logistic regression model were used to analyze the association between ND and some risk factors. RESULTS: (1) The prevalence of ever-smoking was 65.0% (348/535) in men (55.5% daily smokers, 5.4% occasional smokers and 4.1% ex-smokers), and 3.0% (4/133) in women. The prevalence of current smoking for manual workers and safety officers were 67.6% and 64.5% respectively. (2) Among daily and occasional smokers, 66.7% and 89.7% of them had low ND respectively. Among daily smokers, ND increased with the duration of smoking. Manual workers and officers had higher ND. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of smoking was relatively high in workers and officers and in men. However, majority of the smokers were with low ND and could be the prioritized target for a primary smoking cessation intervention program.