Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) is used for assessing nicotine dependence. A shorter test derived from the FTND used for the general population is the Heavy Smoking Index (HSI) (six questions vs. two). The objective of this study is to compare the validity of the HSI versus the FTND.
METHODS: A survey of tobacco use in the general population was carried out in the northern Spanish region of Galicia using both the FTND and the HSI to study a representative sample of 1655 daily smokers. The HSI was compared with the FTND, considered the gold standard. Measures of sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated. Concordance between the tests was also established (Cohen's kappa).
RESULTS: Cohen's kappa showed good agreement between measures (Kappa = 0.7); specificity values were also high (Sp = 96.2%). Sensitivity analysis in females (Se = 62.3%) did not show good agreement.
CONCLUSIONS: The HSI can be used as a reasonably good screening test in order to identify daily smokers with high nicotine dependence. Nevertheless, for populations or subpopulations having low nicotine dependence, such as women, the FTND is more reliable.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-30-2009
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-493
Repository Citation
Pérez-Ríos, M.; Santiago-Pérez, M. I.; Alonso, B.; Malvar, A.; Hervada, X.; and de Leon, Jose, "Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence vs Heavy Smoking Index in a General Population Survey" (2009). Psychiatry Faculty Publications. 4.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/psychiatry_facpub/4
Notes/Citation Information
Published in BMC Public Health, v. 9, article 493, p. 1-5.
© 2009 Pérez-Ríos et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.