Failure to Quit Smoking Extent and Determinants among Attendees of Tobacco Cessation Clinic

Abstract

Smoking is a global health risk factor despite the efforts to control and the existance of tobacco cessation program. The objective of this study was to measure the proportion of people who failed to quit smoking at the end of six months after attending the smoking cessation clinic and to identify the factors associated with failure to quit. We used an analytical cross-sectional design which was conducted at Taif city, Saudi Arabia between January 2019 and March 2020. The attendees of smoking cessation clinic were invited to participate in the study. We used a questionnaire as the data collection too. The statistical package for the social sciences (IBM Corp. Released 2020. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp ) was used to analyze the data. The total responses was 393, out of them  201 (51.1%) failed to quit smoking after six months. Age, marital status, income, and occupation were significantly associated with the outcome variable (quit or not). Even before attending the clinic (62.3%) have indicated previous failed attempts. Among the different types of smoking, hookah showed a significant association with failure, while nicotine dependence did not showed any significance. Failure to quit was associated with advanced age, smoking hookah, while those who indicated the price of tobacco products as a reason to quit were more prone to fail in quitting smoking. In conclusion, smoking cessation can be influenced by a sociodemographic factors, willingness and family support. Smoking hookah is associated with higher rates of failure to quit smoking.