Knowledge Attitude and Practices Towards Water Pipe Smoking Among Adults in Saudi Arabia: Findings from A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Abstract

Background: Waterpipe (WP, Shisha) smoking is one of the sub-types of Tobacco use, which has been used increasingly across the globe over the past several years. This upsurge in the WP smoking could be partly attributed to some of the factors such as lack of knowledge regarding health-related hazards associated with tobacco use and the absence of intensive preventive programs focusing on cigarette smoking.

Objective: The objective of the study was to knowledge, attitudes and practices towards Water Pipe smoking among adults in Saudi Arabia.

Participants and Methods: We undertook a cross-sectional study at four primary care centers in Riyadh city of Saudi Arabia. We identified and enrolled 300 Saudi adults using a stratified random sampling method. We performed logistic regression analysis to analyze the data.

Results: Of the total participants, 147 (49.0%) were current smokers and 47.6% of these current smokers were WP smokers. Of the current WP users, the majority (87.1%) were males. Further, 28% of the study participants stated that WP is less harmful and 56% mentioned that WP has less addictive properties as opposed to cigarettes. More than half of the study participants started WP smoking at an age younger than 20 years. Around 90% of the participants knew that WP smoking could cause lung cancer.

Conclusion: WP smoking was found to be a relatively common practice among adults of Saudi Arabia. The government of Saudi Arabia needs to design some cost-effective and sustainable interventions to help adults to avoid this harmful behavior. Future studies are required to understand the factors of such behavior among adults

Keywords: Perceptions, Behavior, Waterpipe, Shisha smoking, Adults, Saudi Arabia.