Clinic helps 13 Emirati college students quit smoking

13 Emirati college students quit smoking

Thirteen Emirati college students from the Dubai Men’s College at the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) have quit smoking through an on-campus smoking cessation clinic.

The students, staff members and the team from the clinic, under the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), spoke exclusively to Gulf News.

UAE health authorities are currently tackling growing tobacco use — cigarette, shisha or dokha (a traditional Arabic tobacco smoked through a medwakh or pipe) among youngsters.

Two previous countrywide surveys by the Ministry of Health in cooperation with health authorities estimated that in 2002 smoking among male students reached 14.5 per cent and 2.9 per cent among female students.

In 2005, the number of smokers reached 30 and 14 per cent respectively. The third tobacco survey targeting 3,500 adolescents (13 to 19) in the country is under way, and is expected to be complete by June.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consider the college-age population to be a high risk group regarding taking up smoking. The body states that more than 80 per cent of adult smokers begin smoking before 18.

In light of the findings, the DHA, under its Tobacco Free Dubai project, which was launched in 2009, started its tobacco cessation programme on the HCT campus in March, offering counselling, behavioural support and medication.

Dr Sami Mana Ahmad, a community medicine specialist registrar at the DHA’s cessation clinic at the HCT, said the most difficult part was getting students to come forward.

“On the one hand there is peer pressure, and on the other, the positive association of smoking — social activity. The addiction can be nicotine or habitual/behavioural. College students mostly fall in the habitual dependency group,” he said.

Dr Ahmad explained that college students believe they are invincible — full of vigour and health.

“They don’t see the harmful effects of smoking. To convince them, we ask them to take a simple lung test which reveals level of carbon monoxide. They then better understand the risks,” he said.

Preventive policies on campus need to be implemented more rigorously, said Dr Hanan Obaid, Tobacco-Free Dubai Project Leader and Acting Director of the Health Affairs Department, Primary Healthcare Services Sector at the DHA. She said that without the cooperation of educational institutes, anti-smoking efforts wouldn’t have as much impact.

“Preventive policies on campus add value to our work and empower our programmes,” she said. The clinic also spearheaded an anti-smoking support group comprising students who have quit, counsellors and a few staff members, said Dr Hanan.

The head of the support group, staff member Mohammad Hamou, an administration assistant, said he uses his personal struggle to help other students quit smoking.

“After my third son was born, I decided to quit. I had been a smoker for ten years having picked up the habit in college. I share my experience to help students quit,” he said.

Foundation student Mohammad said: “I started smoking medwakh at 12, up to 10 to 15 times a day. It is hard [to quit] because I feel relaxed when I smoke. But I want to quit so I signed up at the cessation clinic.”

Effective measure
Dr Howard Reed, Senior Director of Higher Colleges of Technology, added, a cessation clinic is an effective tobacco control measure.

“When you create an environment where people aren’t smoking, and interact with experts stressing anti-smoking measures, the message gets through. We are proud of the students who have quit.”