I
G. Swetha
Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai
Nicotine product consumption by Indian adolescents have increased. Whether there
are noticeable differences between young and older adults, in frequency/volume
of cigarette-smoking that correlates with stress and depression? Fagerstrom Test
for Nicotine Dependence, Perceived Stress Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and
Wisconsin Smoking Withdrawal Scale are well-established psychometric scales that
directly/indirectly study Nicotine dependence and associated stress, anxiety, depression
and withdrawal symptoms. This paper attempts to demonstrate the statistical power by
correlating individual selective items over total variable scores of these four scales and
compare young adults with adults. The study includes smoking in volume, frequency
and timing, and correlates with four sub-variables of inter-dimensional scales namely
‘guilt’, ‘trouble getting cigarettes off the mind’; ‘sleeping pattern disturbances’ and
‘consequent tobacco consumption’; ‘anger’ with ‘frequency and volume of smoking’;
volume of smoking per day with tensed/anxious conditions and urge to smoke in
stressful conditions. Relationships of these selected sub-variables, for comparing
young adult and adult smokers are documented. A total of 83 young adult smokers in
the age group of 18 and 25 years and 79 adult smokers in the age group of 26 and 60
have been considered from a wide distribution of the Indian demography. Agreements
and deviations with other published works have also been documented. Paired ‘t’ tests
for group comparisons and Pearson’s correlation coefficients between variables have
been computed for the frequencies of the feedbacks on 69 validated questions in four
dimensions. Internal consistency has been tested using Chronbach’s alpha..