A Brief Measure of High Nicotine Dependence for Busy Clinicians and Large Epidemiological Surveys

Abstract

With four questions (smoking, daily smoking, time to first cigarette of day and number of daily cigarettes) and minimal calculations, it may be possible to screen whether a smoker has high nicotine dependence. If other studies in other populations and settings verify this finding, this brief measure might be an ideal screening instrument for busy clinicians, epidemiologists developing questionnaires for health surveys and psychiatric researchers.