title: Prevalence and associated factors of cigarette smoking among medical students at King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh of Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of smoking among medical students at the medical college at King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh, and assess the association between smoking and socio-demographical factors, smoking contacts, reasons for smoking and attempts to quit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey in which anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was used to survey the cigarette smoking habits of the first- and second-year medical students in the Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City in June 2009.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall 39.8 % of the investigated students (153) had smoked before, and 17.6% were current smokers. The mean age of initiating smoking was 15.8 (±3.3). There were significantly more males than females. The most important reasons for smoking were leisure, imitation of other people and a means of relieving psychological pressure. Reasons for not smoking were mostly health and religion-based. Smokers tended to have friends who smoked.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cigarettes smoking is highly prevalent among medical students in the Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City. Contact with smokers particularly friends are the major risk factors for the initiation of the habit. Health and religious considerations are important motives for not smoking, quitting or attempting to quit. These findings can be of help in designing future intervention strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City, King Abdulaziz University of Health Sciences, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdulaziz F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Al-Kaabba
authors.forename: Abdalla A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Saeed
authors.forename: Abdelshakour M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Abdalla
authors.forename: Hashim A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.forename: Ali A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Mustafa