Epidemiology of smoking among Kuwaiti adults: prevalence, characteristics, and attitudes

introduction: in 1996 we conducted a cross-sectional survey to study the epidemiology of smoking among kuwaiti adults. methods: the 4000 participants were selected using a three-stage stratified cluster sampling design. altogether 3859 participants (1798 males, 2061 females) returned a completed self-administered questionnaire. results: the prevalence of smoking was 34.4% (95% confidence interval (ci) = 32.2-36.6) among men and 1.9% (95% ci = 1.3-2.5) among women. among men, the highest prevalence (56.5%; 95% ci = 36.2-76.8) was observed in the youngest age group (< 20 years). among women the highest prevalence was observed in one of the older age groups (46-50 years) (7.1%; 95% ci = 3.1-11.1). multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the following factors were independently associated with smoking: lower levels of education (odds ratio (or) 3.5; 95% ci = 1.5-8.4), lower employment grade (or = 4.1; 2.5-6.7), and being a separated, divorced, or widowed woman (or = 4.9; 95% ci = 2.0-11.8). the majority of smokers (68%) began smoking when younger than 20 years; significantly more men (70%) than women (33%) began smoking at these ages (p <0.0001). on average, men began smoking at an earlier age (18 years vs 21 years; p <0.001) and therefore had smoked for a longer period (15 years vs 12 years; p <0.05); men also consumed a higher number of cigarettes each day (26 vs 17; p <0.05). a large proportion of smokers were ignorant about the health consequences of passive smoking: about 77% of those with children reported that they smoked in the presence of their children. almost half (47%) of all smokers stated that they wanted to stop smoking, and about 56% had attempted to quit. the biggest perceived barrier to quitting was uncertainty about ？？how to quit？？. a total of 338 respondents (8.8%; 95% ci = 5.8-11.9) were classified as former smokers. about half of the former smokers had quit between the ages of 20 and 29 years; the average age of quitting was 28 years. for