Prevalence and Risk Factors of Smoking, and Tobacco use among Secondary School Boy Students in Tabuk Region, Saudi Arabia

As tobacco epidemic continues to increase among adolescents, tobacco control programs based on actual field studies are crucially needed. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Tabuk region to determine the prevalence and risk factors of tobacco use among secondary school boy students. A three-stage stratified random sampling design was used to recruit a sample of 1,680 students from 15 secondary schools. A self-administrated Arabic questionnaire was used to collect the required data. A descriptive and analytic statistical analysis was done. Overall prevalence of cigarette and shisha smoking was 25.7% and 25.9%, respectively. Prevalence of current daily and non-daily smokers was 16.3% and 9.4%, respectively. Prevalence of shisha smokers was 4.3% and 21.6% on regular and non-regular basis, respectively. Odds ratios of important risk factors were: Nationality (1.42), fathers' smoking (1.42), mothers' smoking (2.74), school absenteeism (2.96), sleep disturbance (2.26), and mothers' living status (1.80). Important reasons for smoking were entertainment (43.2%), overcoming the feeling of oppression (36.1%) and peer pressure (11.0%). The majority of students (70.5%) addressed the desire for quitting smoking for health promotion (48.9%); Islamic rules (25.5%) and family dislike (19.9%) reasons. In conclusion, a quarter of the high school students were smokers which necessitate an urgent intervention.