33718 Khalida Naz Memon et al./ Elixir Community Medicine 84 (2015) 33718-33721 Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Community Medicine Elixir Community Medicine 84 (2015) 33718-33721 Met & Unmet Need to Quit Smoking – A Need Assessment for Smoking Cessation Services Khalida Naz Memon 1 , Nudrat Zeba 2 , Shazia Rahman Shaikh 1 , Fahad Ahmed Memon 3 , Adil Ali Shaikh 4 , Muhammad Siddique Rajput 5 , Aneel Kumar 6 1 Department of Community Medicine, Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Sindh Pakistan. 2 Department of Community Health Sciences, Isra Medical University,Pakistan. 3 Department of Incharge Medical Officer, PPHI, Government Dispensary, Tando Hyder, District Hyderabad. 4 Medical Officer, Provincial Health Development Centre (P.H.D.C), Sindh, Pakistan. 5 Department of Commity Medicine, Gambat Institute Medical Sciences, Gambat. 6 Manager Health, Devcon, Pakistan. ART IC LE INF O Article history: Received: 11 May 2015; Received in revised form: 8 July 2015; Accepted: 13 July 2015; Key words Smoking, Met Need, Unmet Need, Determinants, Cessation Services, Motivation. ABSTRACT Chronic non-communicable diseases are the major threat to the health of population in developing countries. Tobacco smoking is one of the preventable underlying factors responsible for this group of diseases. Pakistan faces a higher prevalence of smoking despite the fact that masses are well aware about the ill health effects arising from smoking, thus leading to high unmet need for cessation of smoking. The current community based study on three hundred & twenty subjects looked into the situation unmet need & determinants for higher level of unmet need. The overall prevalence of current smoking in both genders was 49%. There was however no significant relation between gender & smoking (p=0.28). The met need to quit smoking was 21.5% while unmet need to quit smoking was computed as 26.15%. The reasons for not being able to quit smoking were that smokers were of the opinion that they could fully control their smoking habits in future (28.6%; p=0.08), smokers were unaware about smoking cessation services (54.4%; p=0.02), lack of training to health care providers for imparting counseling services (37.2%; p=0.05), the subjects expressed need to establish locally based services with community based smoking cessation advisors (78.6%; p=0.01). The study concluded that in presence of high motivation among smokers to quit smoking, there is urgent need to provide appropriate smoking cessation services to the target population. © 2015 Elixir All rights reserved. Introduction The non-communicable diseases are now days a major public health issue in developed as well as in developing countries. World Health Organization in year 2002 reported that as population is aging, the non-communicable problems are emerging as strong enemies of health throughout the world in general & in south Asian countries in particular [1]. Hypertension & cardiovascular diseases were declared as major and growing contributors to mortality and disability in South Asia [2]. Similarly, chronic obstructive airway diseases (emphysema and chronic bronchitis) and asthma, resulting from indoor and outdoor air pollution, account for a large proportion of the burden of chronic respiratory diseases [3]. Cancers were also reported to be at higher rates in Indo-Pakistan [4]. During the end of previous century, many countries had already conducted researches to find out the potential risk factors & determinants for this group of diseases. As a result cigarette smoking was found as one of the modifiable risk factor responsible for rapid emergence of this group of diseases. According to World Health Organization (WHO), smoking is currently responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide [5]. It causes about 1 in every 5 deaths in the western countries each year [6]. It is the main preventable cause of death and illness in the United States. The situation is more serious in developing countries especially in Eastern Mediterranean countries where approximately 1,200 children are reported to start smoking everyday [7]. Tele: 03009377383 E-mail addresses: drnudratzeba@gmail.com © 2015 Elixir All rights reserved In Pakistan, it is estimated that the prevalence of tobacco smoking is 36% in males and 9% in females [8]. Among young adults especially the university students in Pakistan, the prevalence of smoking is 15%, the majority being male smokers [9]. The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) was the first ever treaty negotiated & developed by W.H.O in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic [10]. Still, it is estimated that in Asian countries including Pakistan, the prevalence of tobacco smoking is very high in both genders [11]. Therefore it seems a dire need for looking into the determinants of smoking as a whole & to see whether there is some room for the improvement on the part of the smoking cessation services in our country. Objectives: 1. To determine the frequency of cigarette smoking in the study population. 2. To estimate the met & unmet need of cigarette smoking among study population. Material & Methods Study Design & Setting It was a community based cross sectional study conducted in Taluka Latifabad, City & Qasimabad in district Hyderabad in Sind province of Pakistan. Duration of Study: The data was collected for the duration of three months i.e. from July 2014 to September 2014. Study Subjects The study was performed on a sample of 320 persons including 256 males & 64 females, keeping in view the Pakistan’s prevalence data for smoking among males & females