Incidence and Determinants Influencing Stopping of Smoking between Individuals using Smoking Cessation Services in Primary Care Centers in Al Medina, Saudi Arabia 2024

Abstract

Background: Primary care doctors have a good opportunity to motivate the smokers to quit smoking in view of the accessibility of primary healthcare clinics to the public. Tobacco dependence is a chronic disease that often requires repeated interventions and multiple attempts to quit. Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of mortality. Globally, an estimated 1.3 billion people smoke.
This study aimed to measure the effectiveness of the smoking cessation program adopted by the Primary Health Care in Al Medina, Saudi Arabia. This was achieved through calculating the percentage of smoking cessation service users (survival probabilities) who maintained the non-smoking status after selected follow up periods. Moreover, the study highlighted the possible association of selected explanatory variables with smoking cessation survival probabilities.
Methods: A historical cohort study 490 participants were recruited by simple random sampling who attended the smoking cessation clinics (SCCs) in PHCC. The participants were contacted by phone and invited to participate in the study. The participants who agreed to participate in the study were interviewed utilizing a structured questionnaire.
Results: Initially (63.5%) of the participants quitted smoking after receiving SCSs. There were statistically significant differences between quitting smoking and the nationality and the educational level of participants (p ≤ 0.001 and 0.02 respectively). About one fourth (23.3%) of individuals who initially quitted smoking relapsed and resumed smoking as early as 6 weeks after completing their SCC visits. This relapse rate increased to 38.7, 47.2 and 51.1% after 12, 24 and 36 weeks respectively. Less than a half (45.8%) maintained the non-smoking status after 42 weeks from their initially quitting.
Conclusion and recommendations: The findings of the study substantiate the effectiveness of SCSs designed within PHCC both in short- and long-term basis. Younger individuals, smokers with Arab ethnicity, smokers falling within high income and education groups were identified as high-risk groups and need highest focus. The accessibility to the service among the local population can be increased by up scaling the advertisement of the existing services.