[Epidemiological study on tobacco smoking and dependence in Hokkaido Prefecture]

A 1998 national survey of smoking and health problems reported that 18 million Japanese over 15-years-old, 53.9% of regular smokers in Japan, have tobacco dependence. The survey used the Tobacco Dependence Screening Questionnaire (TDS), the items in which do not strictly follow the criteria for ICD-10 dependence syndrome. In this study, to evaluate the validity of screening with the TDS for ICD-10 tobacco dependence, TDS and a questionnaire, consisting of items obtained from the ICD-10 dependence syndrome for tobacco use were administered to 1371 participants. The prevalence of tobacco dependence diagnosed according to the ICD-10 criteria was 20.9%. On the other hand, the ratio of tobacco dependence screened by the TDS was 60.1%. Furthermore, only 26.0% of participants screened as tobacco dependent by the TDS were diagnosed as being tobacco dependence according to ICD-10 criteria. These results indicate the possibility of overestimation of the rate of tobacco dependence using the TDS.