Smoking and related diseases in Saudi Arabia

Background: There is no doubt; smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Tobacco consumption is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality. The main objective of this study was to estimate the current status of; prevalence, age at beginning, causes, and factors affecting smoking among the general population of Saudi Arabia. Methodology: We conducted a survey on 1089 individuals aged 15 years or older (55.2% were males) which was performed between May and July 2018. Data were collected through a self-administered online distributed questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions on socio-demographic characteristics, tobacco consumption, period of smoking (in years), age at the beginning of smoking, causes of smoking, personal opinion on smoking, trial to stop smoking, previous experience of stopping smoking and frequency of smoking per day and if the participant has any chronic disease, which affected by smoking. Results: Overall prevalence of current smoking was 45.4% and males were more likely to smoke than females as 78.3%% were males (p=0.001). Mean age of smoking initiation was 16.4 years (±11.8 years) with 20.8% of ever smokers starting at the age of (11-15) years. Daily shisha smoking was reported by 5.1% of the population. Among even smokers, 71.1% of individuals reportedly attempted to quit smoking. Of those, 28.5 % were successful by the time of the study. The reported causes of smoking were for entertainment in 32.8%, to relieve stress in 20.0%, for experience in 18.8% and for stimulating family members and relatives in 18.6%. Smoking is a bad habit and harmful was reported as a personal opinion of 80.0% of the participants. Conclusions: The prevalence of tobacco consumption in Saudi Arabia is considerably high as nearly half (45.4%) are smokers, but there is a good percentage of trial for quitting. So we recommend implementation of aggressive health education of the public to encourage smoking initiation and encourage quitting. We also recommend decision makers to consider increasing taxation on tobacco products.