Effects of Gutkha-addiction on Quality of Life

Submitted to :

Madam Qudsia Tariq

Submitted by:

Amjad Ali Shah

Department of psychology university of Karachi

ABSTRACT
The use of smokeless tobacco in the form of Gutkha is growing day by day. This addiction directly affects addicts quality of life including social, economic, behavioral and environmental aspect as well. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between guttka addiction and quality of life. It was concluded that there is strong correlation between guttka addiction and quality of life. Gutkha addicts have very poor quality of life and they are less satisfied in their interpersonal relationship and current prevalent condition of living.

Introduction:
Good health is the utmost possession and eternal gift of God in human life and such health status is a national asset too for socio-economic development of a society. s a matter of fact good health is termed as foundation of ones happiness and promoter of its kind. Good health is an inalienable human right of modern era. !romotion of health is a basic need of national progress for which health-care is a prime concern of the government of any society. "ealth is the quality of life that enables the individual to live the most and to serve the best. #ans happiness in life depends vigor and vitality which may be termed as turnstile. "uman life without good heal this a curse and painful misery, a virtual death in other words. $o, health not only demands a sufficient re-serve of physical strength but also ability, endurance, mental equilibrium to meet the demands of the tenure of life which is of high importance to every human being. %ut health is a prerequisite for increasing productivity which satisfies the popular idiom & healthy mind in a healthy body'. Thus, according to (.)."uman *evelopment Inde+, quality of life is seen as the product of the interaction of a number of factors like social, health, economic and environmental condition which interact to affect and embodiment both human life and social development at all levels of individual and societies. ,uality of life has gained prominence in social research study since -./0s is abroad concept concerned with overall well-beings within t he society. "appiness, life satisfaction an sub1ective well-being are mutually interrelated and indeed they are all closely connected with the notion of quality of life 2 $usniene et al3 400.5. 6bviously at the same time quality of life is determined through a lot of factors and conditions like dwelling, employment, income and material well-being , moral aptitudes, personal and family life , social support, stress and crisis, status of health, prospects of health care, relationship with the environment , ecology factors2!hillips3 40075.,uality of life and substance-addiction both are inter-related to each other. It is defined as a persons sense of well-being that stems from satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the areas of life that are important to an individual. The concept of quality of life when applied to drug-addiction with an aim to study the well-being and life satisfaction.. Thus the domains likefamily, friends, workplace, neighborhood, community, health education and spiritual activity. %ut large parties associated with standard of living including posses-sion and access to goods and services that a person would possess. ,uality of life has been determined from both the side like ob1ective and sub1ective which mainly includes financial accounts and sense of well-being respectively. $ub1ective quality of life was proposed by*.8. !atrice and !. 9rickson 2:anagas et al3400;5. In medicine quality of life is the ratio of health and illness with the factors influencing healthy lifestyle. !articularly quality of life in case of an addict is to go beyond the presence and severity of symptoms of disease or side effects of treatment and to e+amine how drug-addicted patients perceive and e+perience its effects in their daily lives. dults are the main victims of tobacco addiction. dolescence is the critical period inhuman life while first initiation of addictive substances is undertaken due to several internal, influential as well as e+ternal factors. )ow-a-days Gutkha as smokeless tobacco product has been popularly used by the adults and being a risk-factor for causing oral-cancer. Tobacco

having nicotine in it is mainly de-grades ones health status as well as economic condition. In case of an addict ,quality of life is speculated with minimum three prime domains like physical, psychological and social condition 2:anagas etal3400;5. good environment is conducive to better health is a well-known fact which in turn can reduce healthcare costs. Thus the quality of life that implies including physical, social, economical, behavioral and environmental aspect of an individual. !T"#D#$#%& SA '$!3 <0 Gutkah addicted male participants were selected from the different areas of =arachi and their age ranged between ->-7?. easurement tools @"6 quality of life scale 2bref5 was administered to measure quality of life. It consists of 47 item of four domains3 !hysical health, psychological, social relationship and environment. 'rocedure fter approaching the participants from the different areas of =arachi inform consent form was taken and @"6 quality scale was administered

T %89 Mean Score Perfec Norma of t l Addict Score Score s 35 !" 1" 30 !4 15 15 40 1! 3! % !1

Domain physical eath psycholo#ical Social$elatiion ship &n'ironment

T %89 4
Maximu m Score 130 Normal Score 104 Mean Score of Addict 65

Discussion
,uality of life plays a vital role in every ndividuals life. The relation between the respondents2Gutkha-usres5 and quality of life is of high importance in regard to the present study and is defined interms of standard of living.9ffects of indicators in case of ,uality of life in the study area *ependent variable ,uality of life. The table- -shows that in most variables the calculated value of the coefficient 2%eta5 inthe regression equation is either perverse or insignificantly different from Aero. It is observed that the indicator income 2,-B45 have more effect on the quality of life in the study area. )e+t followed by the indicator education 2,-B<5 has effect on overall development of quality of life. Indicators like health, psychology, awareness, socioeconomic status have positive impact onquality of life. It is observed that the indicator incomehas significant contribution towards quality of life of the respondents in the study area. It shows that withincrease in income, the quality of life of the respon-dents increase. lthough all the respondents have not taken adequate steps to quit Gutkha consumption butsome of them have tried their best to quit this habit. fter adopting this step some of them are successfulin giving up th ishabit and some of them are re-ad-dicted with it and failed to quit it on account of its strong sway. #orover(The aspect of socio-economic profile of respondents on age, education, occupation, income, family type and family siAe play vital role in relation to Gutkha addiction. The respondents are using Gutkha 1ust to avoid loneliness, diversion of tension and too a fashion of modern life style. %ut it is of high importance that the influence of friends is the prime cause of this addiction which is followed by another cause like to avoid problem or tension in day to day life because of its addictive power which aids them to lessen their problem and they feel better and forget their problem at the moments call. The result is in line with the findings of their study 2Chadda and $engupta 40045that peer pressure is an important determining factorfor initiation of tobacco use among adolescents. nother study conducted by )itin Doseph, )agra1 = and$ashidhar =otian # in the year 400? in :antamuri village of %elagaum of =arnatak with a sample siAe of<.4 school children supports the result of our findings that the first source of information about Gutkha forboys is their friends. The people who consume Gutkhato some e+tent they accept that this addiction slowly and silently evokes the classical problems like financial and health problem. *ue to ignorance most of them have not paid any heeds to it and resume this habit without any hesitation. This result is supported by the study of (rvashi Doshi, %havesh #odi and $udhaadav in the year 400/ in urban population of Damnagar of Gu1rat and found that ?>.<0 percent of respondents had quit this habit. ,uality of life of an addict has been influenced and affirmed due to the socio-demographic characteristics of people as well as the e+perience2:anagas3 400;5. $o, the ob1ective quality of life may vary from addict to addict but the sub1ective quality of life can only be considered from the point of personality factors.

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R!C#

!)DATI#)S

)ow it is high time to think seriously to save the society so as to protect human resources most precisely .The suggestions include3 -.!roper education. 4.9ffective legislation. <.Eegulation. ;.9nforcement. ?.$upport for cessation. 7.Community mobiliAation. This social problem needs special attention 6rganiAations2)G6s5 and government agencies. of the society, )on-Governmental

References

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