Investigation of Areca Quid Chewing and Cigarette Smoking Prevalence Rates and the Health Conscience of Betel Quid to Health for Adults in Chiayi City

• Main Authors: Chin-Jui Hsieh, 謝金蕊
• Other Authors: Yi-Hsin Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/skwzq6

碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 口腔衛生科學研究所碩士在職專班 === 91 === Abstract In order to understand the prevalence rates of chewing betel quids and smoking cigarettes in Chiayi City, and to collect the recognition and attitude of population to betel quids, a stratified multi-stage cluster sampling was designed with sampling probability proportional to size (PPS design) to investigate the related data for adults above 18 years old in east and west areas of Chiayi City. Each participant received a personal interview, and questions included: the status of chewing betel quids and smoking cigarettes; the recognition degree of population to danger caused from betel quids, and their attitude and behavior to betel quid chewing. There were totally 446 questionnaires. The data was organized by SAS and analyzed by SUDAAN. From the results, the prevalence rate of having chewing betel quids habit in their lifetime was 13.2% (men 26.3%, women 0.4%), and 9.8% were current chewers. It was estimated that about 24,000 adults in Chiayi City ever had the habit of betel quid chewing. Among them, most were technical workers(26.4%). For those who had the habit of betel quid chewing, there were 52.5% abusers. Such behavior was related to sex, age groups and martial status. For men above 50 years old, they more easily became abusers. Occupation and education were not related to abuse. In prevalence rates of smoking cigarettes, 27.1% had cigarette smoking habit in their lifetime (men 51.1%, women 3.6%), and 24.6% were current smokers (about 40,000 persons). Among them, most were technical workers(41.3%). Education was associated with cigarette smoking behavior, but this behavior was not different in various kinds of jobs. In terms of the betel quid chewing and cigarette smoking behavior, 11.7% used them at the same time, 1.6% only used the betel quids and 15.5% only used the cigarettes. It was found that bad habit started from smoking cigarettes, following was chewing betel quids. Considering stopping the chewing habit, half (57.7%) of the chewers didn’t have any syndrome after they stopped betel quid chewing. For those who had syndromes, most were thirty(19.7%) and lost concentration(16.5%) was second. For the recognition of membrane color in oral precancerous lesion, only 12.8% answered white color, more than half answered unclear(62.5%). The average score of recognition to chewing betel quids was 49.9 (total 100), and the average score of attitude to chewing betel quids was 3 (total 5). This study showed that population in Chiayi City didn’t have enough recognition to the hazard effect of betel quids; hence, the oral health education should be promoted. Besides, we can screen the high-risk population and find the reasons for which they abused and failed to stop chewing. Furthermore, one can develop effective program for cessation of betel quid chewing and smoking.