Knowledge and attitudes towards E-cigarette use in Lebanon and their associated factors

BMC Public Health

Table 1 Demographics, socioeconomic, smoking habits, and lifestyle characteristics distribution of our study participants (N = 352) in Beirut, Lebanon between December 2018 and March 2019

	No.	Valid %
Age (Mean ± SD)	30.29 ± 11.78
Sex
Male	198	56.6
Female	152	43.4
Level of education
Bachelor’s degree	156	44.3
Graduate school	100	28.4
High school level or equivalent	52	14.8
Intermediate level or below	33	9.4
Technical /vocational study	7	2.0
No schooling completed	4	1.1
Is your occupation or major health related?
Yes	228	78.1
No	64	21.9
Smoking Habits
Do you currently smoke?
Yes	162	46.2
No (non-smokers)	151	43.0
Quit/quitting smoking	38	10.8
If you smoke, what do you smoke? (Circle all that apply)
Cigarettes	137	52.7
Hookah^a	68	26.2
Cigars	13	5
E-cigarettes	30	11.5
Dokha^b	6	2.3
Pipe^c	1	0.4
Other	5	1.9
What form of smoking did you quit/are you quitting? (Circle all that apply)
Cigarettes	44	58.7
Hooka	20	26.7
Cigars	4	5.3
Dokha	3	4
E-cigarettes	3	4
Pipe	0	0
Other	1	1.3
What methods of smoking cessation have you used/are you using? (Circle all that apply)
Reducing number of cigarettes per day	39	42.8
E-cigarettes	12	13.2
Behavioral therapy	5	5.5
Nicotine patches	3	3.3
Medication	2	2.2
Nicotine gum	1	1.1
Other	29	31.9
Have you ever thought of quitting smoking?
Yes	132	72.5
No	50	27.5
Lifestyle characteristics^a
Do you exercise regularly?
No	197	56.0
Yes	155	44.0
Do you believe you follow a healthy diet?
No	191	54.3
Yes	161	45.7
Do you drink alcohol?
No	195	55.4
Yes	157	44.6
Do you drink coffee?
Yes	281	80.5
No	68	19.5

^aHookah or waterpipe: “a smoking device that consists of a bowl mounted on a vessel of water which is provided with a long tube and arranged so that smoke is drawn through the water where it is cooled and up the tube to the mouth” [38]
^bDokha: is tobacco blended with “barks, herbs, spices, dried flowers or dried fruit” and smoked in a particular pipe called “midwakh”. It has a high nicotine content, around five times that of a normal cigarette [39]
^cPipe: “a device for smoking usually consisting of a tube having a bowl at one end and a mouthpiece at the other” [40]
^dThe study did not provide standard definitions for “exercise regularly”, “healthy diet”, “drink alcohol”, or “drink coffee”; the participants answered these questions based on their subjective interpretation of these terms

ISSN: 1471-2458