Smoking Habits of Students in Secondary Health Institutes in Riyadh City,Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The smoking habits of all male and female students enroled in Riyadh Secondary Health Institutes of the Ministry of Health in 1990 were studied using a self-administered questionnaire.

The overall smoking prevalence was 22%. Cigarettes were virtually the only form of tobacco used. Males smoked about twice the females in terms of prevalence (24% and 14%) and intensity (14 and 6 cigarettes per day). The majority of smokers for both sexes started the habit at or before the age of 16 years and the majority of them thought seriously about quitting and attempted to quit but only 12% of them were so far successful. Psychologic pressures, smoking contacts and foreign travel were important factors in relapsers. Religious, health and professional considerations were the most important motives for attempting to quit the habit among smokers and for not attempting the habit itself for the non smokers.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Chandler W. (1986). Banishing tobacco. World Health , June 8-10

Hynes M. (1989). A school-based smoking prevention program for adolescent girls in New York City. Public Health Reports, 104(1), 83-87

Kaprio K. , Koskenvuo M. ( 1988). A prospective study of psychological and socioeconomic characteristics, health behaviour and morbidity in cigarette smokers prior to quitting compared to persistent smokers and non-smokers. J cli Epidemiol, 41(2), 139-150

Mcneil A. , Jarvis M. , Stapleton J. et al (1988). Prospective study of factors predicting uptake of smoking in adolescents. J Epidemiol Comm Hlth, 43,72-78

Murray M. , Kiryluk S. , Swan A. ( 1984). School characteristics and adolescent smoking. Results from the MRC/Derbyshire smoking study 1947-8 and from a follow up in 1981 . J Epidemiol Comm Hlth, 38,167-172

Murray M. , Mcreynolds F. (1987). Cigarette smoking among 11-12 year olds in the western areas of Northern Ireland: Family and school factors. Public Health, 101,465-471

Pedersen W. (1990). Starting to smoke-vulnerability to girls. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen, 110,740-744

Rothwell K. , Masironi R. (1986). Cigarette smoking in developed countries outside Europe. WHO/SMO/86.2,1-49

Rowlands D. , Shpster P. (1987). Cigarette smoking amongst Saudi school boys. Saudi M J, 6,613-618

10.

Saeed A. (1987). Smoking habits of students in College of Allied Medical Sciences, Riyadh. J S R H, 187-188

11.

Saeed A. , Taha A. , Al Shahry A. (1989). Smoking habits of physicians in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi M J, 10, 508-511

12.

Taha A. , Bener A. , Noah M. , Saeed A. , Al-Harthy S. (1991). Smoking habits of King Saud University students in Riyadh. Ann Saudi Med, 11, 141-143

13.

Ulder J. (1986). Antismoking language that the young can understand . World Health Forum,7,74-78

14.

Vlajinac H. , Adenja B. , Jarebinski M. (1989).Cigarette smoking among medical students in Belgrade related to parental smoking habits. Soc Sci Med, 29, 891-894

15.

World Health Organization (1984). Guidelines for the conduct of smoking surveys among health professional. WHO/SMO/84, 1-19

16.

World Health Organization (1985). World Health Statistics Quarterly. WHO,38,259