Prevalence of smoking and its associated health effect among Saudis: A Nationwide study (Preprint)

Abstract

Tobacco smoking remains one of the leading causes of preventable deaths globally. There is a lack of up-to-date reports on the prevalence of smoking and its associated risk factors among the Saudi population.

This study aims to provide a recent smoking prevalence and compare smokers vs. non-smokers and their effect on different chronic diseases.

Nationwide population-based study.,secondary analysis of data from the Sharik Health Indicators Surveillance System (SHISS). The SHISS proportionate quota sampling method was employed to obtain an equitable distribution of adult participants, stratified by age and gender. A total of 23098 participants' records who were enrolled in the SHISS in 2020 were analyzed in this study.

Overall, 28.05 % of Saudis reported that they currently smoke. This prevalence was 45.3 % among males and 11.11% among females. The prevalence of smoking varied by age; those aged 30-39 were the highest (34%) and lower among 18-19 years old (18.4%), with the Western region having the highest number of smokers in the Kingdom. Smokers had a higher chance of suffering from diabetes (18.2%), high cholesterol (27.2%), high blood pressure (35%), and two times higher chances of having a stroke and cancer than their non-smokers counterparts.

The study findings suggest that implementing tobacco control policies in Saudi Arabia has not effectively reduced smoking prevalence. Action is needed to prevent the significant and growing smoking-related chronic disease burden from further increasing as the Saudi population ages.

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