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The Prevalence of Successful Tobacco Quitters among Visitors of Tobacco control Program Clinics in Makkah Al-Mukarramah 2014-2016 Cross Sectional Study

Introduction

Tobacco use, is one of the main non communicable diseases NCDs health problems leading to death globally. The current prevalence of tobacco use in Saudi Arabia is 12.2% and it is increasing. World Health Organization estimation about tobacco trend in Saudi Arabia put the country at risk of tobacco endemic if no measures are taken. The Tobacco Control Program TCP within the Ministry of Health is offering Quit services for tobacco users.

Methodology

This study is to identify the prevalence of successful quit rate in the activity of Tobacco Control Program (TCP). A phone call interview to 800 visitors has been done to identify the status of tobacco use post the visit to TCP clinics in Makkah during 2014 - 2016.

Results

Response rate was 44.8% while The successful quit rate was found to be 32.6% which is considered high and positive for the program while the highest quit rate was for the people who started smoking at age of less than 13 years. The success rate at the 1st quit trial is almost 42.1% which is the highest compared to people who have frequent trials. People who smoke cigarettes only has a lower success rate than people smoke combination of cigarettes, Shisha, And Moassel.

Conclusion

It is advised to more educational and therapeutic campaign for people at younger age to increase the awareness and reduce tobacco use in Saudi Arabia. More detailed studiesare needed to evaluate quit programs including the private and social non-profit organizations. The other results in this study is consistent to the previous studies by WHO and Saudi MOH in term of characteristics of the population of tobacco users.