Volume 24, Issue 105, September - October, 2020

Correlates of cigarette smoking, and risks for chronic respiratory illnesses among young male adults, in Qena, Upper Egypt

Raouf M. Afifi^1♦, Majed Al Harthi², Ashraf E. Saad³, Faris S. Almalki⁴, Sameh Sh. Zaytoun⁵

¹Community Health Research Department, International Management-Health Services, Indianapolis, IN, USA
²Academic Affairs, King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
³Department of Statistics and Information, Ministry of Health, Khartoum, Sudan
⁴Medical Department, King Faisal Hospital, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
⁵Community Medicine & Public Health Department, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt

^♦Corresponding author
Raouf Afifi, MD, MPH, MHA, MSc Community Health Research, York Ridge International Solutions, 2114 W Henry Ave, Tampa, FL, USA 33603, Tel.: Office: +201113191190; Email: raoufafifi@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT

Background: Despite the known harmful effects of tobacco smoking, it is still a common risk behavior of young adults worldwide. Aim: To measure correlates associated with cigarette smoking among young-men residents of Qena, Upper Egypt and subsequent chronic bronchial illness. Methods: A total 1000randomly selected men 20-44years old attending the outpatient department (OPD) of Quena University Hospital (QUH) were interviewed, 06/2018 – 05/2019. A predesigned questionnaire, clinical examination and chest x-ray (CXR) were used. Results: The mean subjects’ age was 32.2±2.3y; 98.2% were single, 50.6% recent graduates, 45% a workforce, and 4.4% were jobless. Further, 66.4% were of middle socioeconomic status (SES). Education-wise, 69.8% subjects had >9 year–and 30.2% had ≤ 9year education. Current smokers accounted 266 (26.6%) of the study population. Middle – and – high SES subjects were at higher risk for smoking (28.8%, 36.7, respectively) than low SES peers (18.8%). Subjects with ≤ 9 year education were at a significantly higher risk for smoking than those more educated [33.1% vs. 23.8%, χ2(1)= 10.2), p=0.0013]. Manual workers (38.2%) tended to smoke more than “just graduates” (17.8%) and the jobless (9.1%) [χ2(2)= 58.1, p<0.0001].Respiratory wise, 27.6% of heavy smokers had bronchial asthma-like symptoms and 17.2 chronic bronchitis symptoms, vs. 20.9%, and 4.7% of light smokers, respectively [χ2(9)= 301.8, p<0.001]. Conclusions: Higher SES, low education level, and manual work were significant smoking correlates among participants. The greater the cigarette consumption the higher risk for chronic pulmonary illness. These risks are quite preventable; efforts to minimize them are required.

Keywords: Smoking; respiratory illness; adults; Qena; Egypt

Medical Science, 2020, 24(105), 3724-3735

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