The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: To determine the prevalence of tobacco use (cigarettes and hookah) among the Arab and Chaldean community in order to develop a cessation program.

Methods: Information was obtained from a health assessment questioner distributed to people who sought community services from the Arab American & Chaldean Council (ACC), which is a non-profit organization. The study population was 3,502, which represents 7.5% of the ACC clients/year. From 3,502 participants, 2,630 responded to questions regarding tobacco use. 727 persons (27.6%) were current smokers (137 smoke hookah), 405 (15.4%) were former smokers, while 1498 (57.0%) never smoked. For the purpose of analysis ex-smokers were excluded from the study.

Results: There were significant differences (P= 0.001) between smoker and non-smokers in the following variables: gender (56% female non-smokers), age (25% of smokers> 45 compared to 19% of non-smokers) , marital status (single smokers 40% vs. 33% single non-smokers), education (8% non-smokers were illiterate vs. 4.4% of smokers), income, ethnicity, and insurance status. There were no significant differences between smokers and non smokers for the following chronic diseases (hypertension, coronary artery disease, diabetes and asthma), however, there were significant difference (p=0.01) with high cholesterol (18% of smokers vs. 14% of non-smokers) and depression (23% of smokers vs. 16.5% of non-smokers). Based on these results, an educational cessation program will be established for the Arab & Chaldean Community.