Fagerstrom, K. A Comparison of Dependence across Different Types of Nicotine Containing Products and Coffee. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018, 15, 1609, doi:10.3390/ijerph15081609.
Fagerstrom, K. A Comparison of Dependence across Different Types of Nicotine Containing Products and Coffee. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018, 15, 1609, doi:10.3390/ijerph15081609.
Fagerstrom, K. A Comparison of Dependence across Different Types of Nicotine Containing Products and Coffee. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018, 15, 1609, doi:10.3390/ijerph15081609.
Fagerstrom, K. A Comparison of Dependence across Different Types of Nicotine Containing Products and Coffee. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018, 15, 1609, doi:10.3390/ijerph15081609.
Abstract
Introduction. Few studies have compared the dependence to different tobacco and nicotine products. Besides how dependence may vary between tobacco products there is even less known how it relates to other common drugs, e.g. caffeine. In this study degree of dependence was compared between snus, cigarettes, nicotine replacement (NR), electronic cigarettes and coffee. Methods. An internet panel was used to obtain a representative sample of 3001 Swedes. The responders were asked among other related things about their use of snus, NR, traditional cigarette or e-cigarette use and coffee consumption. The indicators of dependence used were: A. the Heavy Smoking Index, B. The proportions that used within 30 min after raising in the morning, C. rating the first use in the morning as the most important and D. Stating that it would be very hard to give up entirely. Results. Significantly fewer among coffee drinkers started use within 30 minutes of awakening compared with all other products. The first use of the day was found to be more important for snus users compared with other products. On HSI there was no difference between snus and cigarettes. Snus and cigarettes were rated as being more difficult to give up than NR and coffee. Conclusion. Dependence to traditional cigarettes and snus seem to be relatively similar while NR was rated lower and coffee lowest. Since the prevalence of caffeine use in all forms is so much more prevalent than nicotine use there might be more persons in the society heavily dependent on caffeine. Implication. Tobacco products are likely more dependence forming that NR products and coffee. The addiction to coffee or caffeine is seldom discussed in the society. But if there are more individuals heavily dependent on coffee than nicotine and some nicotine containing products like snus and even more so NR are not that much more harmful than coffee how problematic is the addiction?
Keywords
dependence; nicotine; tobacco; coffee
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Psychiatry and Mental Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.