Effect of Age at Smoking Initiation on Nicotine Dependency and Smoking Craving

Age at starting smoking, nicotine dependency, and smoking craving are the most important factors in successful smoking cessation. This study aimed to investigate the effect of age of starting smoking on nicotine dependency and smoking craving.
In a cross sectional study in 2014, a convenience sample of 450 smokers of Gorgan city was included. The instruments were a demographic questionnaire, Fagerstrom nicotine dependency test, cigarette smoking temptation questionnaire of Velicer et al and Diclemente et al. smoking stages of change. We analyzed the data by SPSS 21 and EQS 6.1 softwares using descriptive statistics methods; Kruskal-Wallis, and Linear regression.
Findings: The average age at smoking onset was 33.54 ± 12.45 years. Linear regression revealed that the number of daily smoked cigarettes (p lower age at smoking and more number of daily smoked cigarette results in more nicotine dependence and craving. Thus, it is a necessity to delay the age of smoking initiation along with some interventions to increase the quit rate.