The study will also attempt to assess the knowledge and attitude towards smoking, Dr Ahmad Al Mulla, Head of the HMC Tobacco Control Center, told The Peninsula.
DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Tobacco Control Center will soon conduct a new research to find the prevalence of tobacco smoking among the adult population in Qatar, said a senior official.
The study will also attempt to assess the knowledge and attitude towards smoking, Dr Ahmad Al Mulla, Head of the HMC Tobacco Control Center, told The Peninsula.
“Soon, the center will conduct a new research to determine the knowledge, attitude and prevalence of tobacco smoking among the adult population in Qatar,” he said.
It will be conducted among randomly selected Qataris and non-Qataris above 18 years old. During the study information such as nature of smoking, quantity, health status of the smokers and what their perceptions about smoking will be collected.
Previous studies have suggested that 37 percent of Qatar’s adult population smokes tobacco while 13 percent of schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15, used tobacco in different forms.
The HMC Tobacco Control Center consists of four main pillars of clinical service, research, awareness and training.
It has the capacity to treat more than 2000 new patients every year. “The centre also aims at expanding its services to become a unified entity that includes training for healthcare providers to ensure the best quality of care and health care management by the provision of the appropriate treatment for smoking cessation in Qatar, health awareness and promotion as well as scientific evidence-based research,” said Dr Al Mulla.
Health awareness and promotion includes school visits, lectures and workshops at public and private companies, ministries as well as direct outreach activities to the community at large through frequent visits to shopping malls and large scale events.
The centre is also a regional leader in smoking cessation programmes and research and has been officially designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The WHO Collaborating Center designation entitles the centre to carry out tobacco control and smoking cessation activities on national, regional and international levels that best align with the Organisation’s mandated international health work. This includes conducting regional smoking cessation workshops, implementation of a quit line, regional assessment of cessation services as well as other activities,” said Dr Al Mulla.
