Prevalence and Determinants of Electronic Cigarettes Use among Governmental Secondary School Students in Makkah, 2018

Background: Since introduction in the early 2000s, e-cigarette use has rapidly increased among adolescents worldwide. However, little is known about e-cigarette uptake among adolescents in Saudi Arabia. Objectives: To explore the prevalence and determinants of the e-cigarette use among governmental secondary school students in Makkah, 2018. Subjects and methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out, including a random representative sample of students attending governmental secondary schools in Makkah during 2018-2019. A self-administered validated questionnaire was adopted and modified from WHO Youth Tobacco Survey 2011 consisting of socio-demographic and personal characteristics and associated determinants. Results: The study included 301 governmental secondary school students. More than half of the students (54.2%) were females and 56.8% were Saudis. Forty-five students (15%) ever tried to use electronic cigarettes whereas twenty-seven (9%) students have used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. Higher school grades, higher allowance, working fathers, higher educated mothers, parental smoking, friend smoking, ignorance of the fact that e-cigarettes contain nicotine and of the harmful impacts of the e-cigarettes on health are significantly associated with e-cigarette use. The main reasons for e-cigarette use among those who ever tried them (n=45) were the desire to have an experience with e-cigarette (77.8%), feeling that e-cigarette can help them quit smoking (64.4%), trying to taste and smell the e-cigarette (62.2%) and feeling that e-cigarette is safer than tobacco cigarette (60.0%). Conclusion: E-cigarettes have been tried and currently used by a considerable proportion of students enrolled in governmental secondary schools in Makkah. Some associated factors were identified