Tobacco Smoking Prevalence, Health Risk, and Cessation in the UAE

Tobacco smoking is a major public health concern and a leading cause of preventable death. We sought to review epidemiological studies available on the prevalence of tobacco use, the associated health effects, and interventions that have undergone evaluation concerning smoking cessation and prevention in the UAE.

An electronic search of the PubMed and Scopus databases was conducted using appropriate keywords for articles published between 2007 and 2017. We included all English-language articles in addition to research articles on the UAE populations (including both citizens and expatriates).

Fourteen articles were included, of which 11 were cross-sectional studies, one was a cohort longitudinal study, one was quasi-experimental, and one case-control study. Our results suggest that current smoking prevalence estimates vary widely. This is the first study in the region to review the smoking prevalence, health risk, and interventions in the UAE.

UAE Government demonstrated excellent efforts by raising the cost of smoking through taxation, mounting sustained social marketing campaigns, and ensuring that health professionals routinely advise smokers to stop smoking accompanied by behavioral and pharmacological support for cessation. Hence, future research should be more focused on evaluating the outcome and impact of current anti-smoking campaigns.