Barriers to Quit Smoking among Adult Smokers

Background: Smoking is a physical and psychological addiction, which could create serious health problems. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of illness and death in the world and is known to affect all parts of a person's body. Only few studies discussed the barriers of quitting smoking in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Design: A cross sectional questionnaire based survey. The questionnaire was adopted from Wisconsin Tobacco survey after taking the author's permission. Setting: Bahrain mall, Isa town mall, Seef mall, Muharraq mall and Riffa mall. Method: The sample size was calculated according to Wisconsin study. The selected smokers who were attending the selected malls were asked to name "the main barrier or number one reason that kept them from quitting smoking". Result: Craving for smoking cited by one third of the smokers as the main barrier followed by enjoyment of smoking 60 (24%) and nicotine withdrawal symptoms 27 (11%). Conclusion: Craving, enjoyment of smoking, and how to handle stress were the main barriers found in this study.