Prevalence and Characteristics of Cigarette Smoking Among 16 to 18 Years Old Boys and Girls in Saudi Arabia
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Original Article Prevalence and characteristics of cigarette smoking among 16 to 18 years old boys and girls in Saudi Arabia Mohammed O. Al Ghobain, Mohamed S. Al Moamary, Sulieman N. Al Shehri1, Mohamed S. AL-Hajjaj2 College of Medicine, Abstract: King Saud bin OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence and characteristics of cigarette smoking among secondary school students Abdulaziz University (16- to 18-year-old boys and girls) in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia. for Health Sciences, METHODS: We applied a standard two-stage, cross-sectional study design. Secondary schools for both boys 1Department of School and girls in Riyadh city were randomly selected using a cluster sampling method. We used the global youth Health, Ministry of tobacco survey (GYTS) tool to achieve our objectives. Education, 2King Saud RESULTS: Among 1272 students (606 boys and 666 girls), the prevalence of those ever smoked cigarettes University, Riyadh, was 42.8% (55.6% of boys and 31.4% of girls). The prevalence of current smoking was 19.5% (31.2% of boys Saudi Arabia and 8.9% of girls). Despite the fact that the majority of students think smoking is harmful, most do not wish to stop smoking, and they had not tried to stop in the past year. Cigarette smoking is signifi cantly associated with Address for the male gender, having friends who smoke, and having parents who smoke, but is not signifi cantly associated correspondence: with the type of school attended. Dr. Mohammed O. Al CONCLUSION: Smoking prevalence among secondary schools students in Saudi Arabia is high and alarming. Ghobain, There is a need to implement an education program about the risks of smoking and to include parents and friends College of Medicine, King as healthy models to prevent students from beginning to smoke. Saud bin Abdulaziz Key words: University for Health Sciences, Cigarette smoking, prevalence, Saudi Arabia Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. E-mail: alanezi@hotmail. com moking is considered as a significant standardized methodology. To our knowledge, Submission: 07-03-11 Shealth problem in youth around the world, the only available GYTS from Saudi Arabia was Accepted: 05-05-11 particularly in developing countries. Recent data published by Al-Bedah and his colleagues who from the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted the survey in intermediate schools revealed that approximately 12% of adolescent (13 to 15 years old) in 2001 (male students only) boys and 7% of adolescent girls smoke cigarettes.[1] and 2007 (males and female students).[13] When Moreover, more than 6 million children might compared to the 2001 survey, the 2007 survey die at an earlier age due to smoking-related revealed an increase in tobacco use among diseases.[2] As a result of smoking at an early age, male adolescents. Between 2001 and 2007, the smokers will have a higher risk for developing percentage of male students who indicated that many diseases with an earlier onset, including they had “ever smoked” increased from 34.5% chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to 39.5% and the percentage of current cigarette lung cancer, and heart disease, particularly in smokers among male students increased from developing countries.[3] 10.8% to 13.0% Access this article online Although there are many surveys addressed On the other hand, the prevalence of smoking Quick Response Code: the prevalence of smoking in Saudi Arabia, among Saudi university students over the age of most of these surveys end up with different 18 has been investigated in several studies.[4-11] conclusions, likely because the studies did not These studies also did not follow a standardized follow a standardized protocol, sample size, or protocol, and therefore showed variability in sample selection.[4-11] Overall, the prevalence of the data, which ranged between 13 and 20% of smoking among the Saudi population ranges male students and 9–11% of female students.[4-11] from 2.4 to 52.9% with a median of 17.5%.[12] The most recent survey, which used a modifi ed Website: The variability of the overall prevalence has version of GYTS, was conducted in 2010 at www.thoracicmedicine.org been assessed to a certain extent in the youth by a university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and utilizing the global youth tobacco survey (GYTS). revealed an overall smoking prevalence of DOI: This survey was developed by the world health 14.5% (32.7% of male students and 5.9% of 10.4103/1817-1737.82447 organization (WHO) as a tool to collect data using female students).[14] Annals of Thoracic Medicine - Vol 6, Issue 3, July-September 2011 137 Ghobain, et al.: Prevalence of cigarette smoking in KSA Most of the available data in the literature covered age groups environmental tobacco smoke. The Arabic-language version younger than 15 years and older than 18 years. However, to of the GYTS was available from the WHO, and to address the our knowledge, a study on the smoking habits of boys and objectives of this study, certain questions related to cigarette girls attending secondary schools in Saudi Arabia using GYTS smoking were selected from the survey. has not been reported to date. This study was designed to fi ll this gap in knowledge, and focused on the prevalence and Smoking prevalence is defi ned as the percentage of students characteristics of cigarette smoking among secondary school who are current smokers. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) students (16- to 18-year-old boys and girls) in Riyadh city, defi nes current smokers as persons who have smoked cigarettes Saudi Arabia. on one or more days during the 30-day period before the survey was administered.[15] A person who had “ever smoked” was Methods defi ned as a student who had tried or experimented with cigarette smoking, even one or two puffs, at any stage of his or A cross-sectional survey was conducted using GYTS of her life. Any student who did not fulfi ll the defi nition of “ever” secondary school students (16- to 18-year-old boys and girls) or “current” was considered to be “never” smoked. in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia from the 24th of April, 2010, to the 16th of June, 2010. The survey was conducted with permission from the Ministry of Education. We received an approval from the Research and Riyadh education department provided a list of all secondary Ethics Committee of the Saudi Thoracic Society. Verbal consent schools in Riyadh city, the number of students in each school, was given by the students after explaining the purpose of the and the grade level of the students. The city hosts 160 secondary study and highlighting that surveys would be anonymous and schools for boys (72 private schools) and 245 schools for girls data would be kept confi dential during handling and storage. (113 private schools). The overall number of Saudi secondary school students in Riyadh city during 2009-2010 academic Statistical analysis years was 161223 students, or 83056 (51.5%) boys and 78167 Data were analyzed using STATA V9.1 (SAA Institute, NC). (48.5%) girls. All variables were summarized and reported across the study sample using descriptive statistics. Continuous variables such Schools and students were selected using a two-stage cluster as age at time of interview and age at fi rst cigarette smoking sample. In the fi rst sampling stage, a computer-generated were collected and entered as categorical variables and then random selection method was used to choose 46 secondary summarized and reported as frequency distributions in the schools in Riyadh city from a list of 405 schools for a total of same manner as all other categorical variables such as gender 19834 Saudi students (9771 boys and 10063 girls). To conduct and g rade level. A logistic regression analysis was used to the sampling, we divided Riyadh city into four districts based analyze the relationship between the dependent variable “ever on their proximity to two major highways (North, East, South, smoking” and independent variables including gender, friends and west). Fifteen percent of boys` schools and 10% of girls` who smoke, parents who smoke, and type of school. All results schools from each district were selected based on proportional were summarized using an odds ratio with a 95% confi dence probability. Fourteen schools were selected from the east interval. A P-value of 0.05 or less was considered as signifi cant. district (7 boy’s schools and 8 girls` schools), 12 schools from north district (6 boy’s schools and 6 girl’s schools), 10 schools Results from west district (5 boy’s schools and 4 girl’s schools), and 10 schools from south district (5 boy’s schools and 5 girls` Out of a total of 1380 students, 108 refused to participate, schools). making the response rate 92% and the total sample size was 1272 participants. Boys completed 606 questionnaires (47.6%) During the second sampling stage, 3 classes, or one for each and girls completed 666 (52.3%) [Table 1]. Total prevalence grade level, were selected from each school. Thus, a total of those who had ever smoked a cigarette was 42.8% (55.6% of 138 classes were identifi ed in the sample. Each class was of boys and 31.4% of girls). The prevalence of students who considered to be a cluster and all students in the selected classes had smoked at least one cigarette in the past 30 days (“current constituted the target group of the present study. Thirty boys smokers”) was 19.5% (31.2% of boys and 8.9% of girls) [Table 2]. and 30 girls were selected from each school (10 students from grade 1, 10 students from grade 2, 10 students from grade 3).