Effects of covid-19 pandemic on smoking behavior among Saudi postgraduate physicians

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked global stress. This has altered people's coping mechanisms, with some turning to harmful smoking as an option. Smoking is highly prevalent among Saudi healthcare workers, particularly postgraduate physicians. Therefore, it is critical to comprehend the smoking factors among Saudi postgraduate physicians and how COVID-19 affects their smoking status. This cross-sectional study used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from postgraduate physicians across Saudi Arabia. Data from questionnaires were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Chi-square test, and multivariate and multinomial logistic regression. Of the 740 participants, 27.6% were smokers and 11.6% were former smokers. Cigarette smoking was the most prevalent type, followed by electronic cigarettes and Shisha (51.0%, 47.1%, and 37.3%, respectively). Smoking was found to be associated (P < 0.05) with age over 30, male gender, father and mother smoking, as well as smoking brothers, friends, and smokers' less educated mothers. Despite COVID-19, most smoking postgraduate physicians smoke at their average rates, followed by those who smoke more than their average. Educational and training programs should include appropriate, healthy coping techniques. Furthermore, the associated factors of smoking could help in developing appropriate tobacco-control programs to prevent smoking among postgraduate physicians.