title: Smoking patterns among primary health care attendees, Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia.
abstract: Prevalence, sociodemographic patterns and medical co-morbidity of smoking among a cross-section of primary health care (PHC) clients in Saudi Arabia were examined. We used a 44-item semistructured questionnaire to collect data from 1752 patients at 25 randomly selected PHC centres. Percentage of smoking was 52.3%. Although 85% were adult smokers, 8.6% began smoking before age 12. Smokers gave overlapping reasons to smoke including peer pressure; non-smokers gave religious and health logics against smoking. Of all smokers, 92.8% wanted to learn cessation strategies, 11.8% were ignorant of hazards and 32.4% reported manifestations of nicotine withdrawal. Besides alcohol use (13.4%), 81.8% had co-morbid physical disease.
authors.affiliation: Primary Health Care, Buraidah, Al-Oassim Region, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Al-Haddad
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Al-Habeeb
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Abdelgadir
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Al-Ghamdy
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Qureshi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires