Online ISSN: 2515-8260

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PEER PRESSURE AND RELAPSE DURING TOBACCO QUIT PROCESS

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Keerthika Saravanan1 , Arthi Balsubramaniam2 , Santhosh Kumar MP

Abstract

It has been established that smoking is a very different addiction to break. Many smokers persist in tobacco use for several years and cycle through multiple periods of remission and relapse Smoking is not a single event process and relapse is an ordinary component of this process. International guidelines have greatly emphasized on relapse prevention. Very few studies examine the association between the number of cigarettes smokers consume per month and their response to cues derived from peer and physiological distress. This study aims to evaluate association between peer pressure and relapses during tobacco quit. A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing 75,000 patient records of University hospital for a period of nine months from June 2019 to March 2020. About 150 case reports containing information on tobacco dependence and quit rate (in terms of number of relapses) were retrieved and analysed. Descriptive statistics was done to present the sociodemographic details. Chi-square association was done to find the association. Most of the participants (34%) were in the age group 29-38 years, followed by 49-59 years (26%), 19-28 years (24%) and 39-49 years (16%). About 13.3%, 20%, 4%, 10% of 19-28 yrs, 29-38 yrs, 39-48 yrs and 49-59 yrs of patients respectively had peer pressure during their quitting process.About 11.3% 20%, 8.67 and 13.3% of patients in the age group 19-28 yrs, 29-38 yrs, 39-48 yrs and 49-59 yrs had no relapses during the quitting process.No significant association between age and number of relapses (p=0.746; not significant). Hence proving no influence of age on relapse during quitting process. About 28% of patients with peer pressure and 25.3% without peer pressure had no relapse during quitting. However 19.3% and 27.3% with and without peer pressure had >1 number of relapses. during their quitting process,No significant association of peer pressure in relapse (p=0.295, not significant). No influence of peer pressure on relapse during the quitting process. Peer pressure is not much influencing the number of relapses during the quitting process, however a watch over this factor to be taken in account during cessation counselling.

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