Abstract

Background: Smoking is one of the leading bad habits that persist in a good percentage throughout the population although being known to cause a magnitude of illnesses. The study aimed to observe the smokers who were willing to quit, how they helped themselves to refrain from smoking and how beneficial they thought these strategies were to assist them. Furthermore, it was aimed to explore the provoking factor for smoking and main motive to quit.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 455 smokers visiting one of the smoking cessation clinics during the year 2021. These participants were interviewed to collect the data about their smoking history, previous cessation trials, and factors which helped them to refrain from smoking.
Results: Among 455 participants, 315 had at least one previous trial to cease smoking. They averaged to a mean value of 5.21 out of 10 for smoking dependence level and were willing to quit by a mean value of 8.17 out of 10. It was noticed that majority of them found some helpful modifiable factors to ease their dependence, exercise was the leading factor chosen to help reduce/abstaining smoking, followed by food consumption.
Conclusion: While there are pharmaceutical interventions to relieve smoking, physicians and health care workers should emphasize the importance of counseling and the importance to change one's lifestyle to ease quitting smoking, and should encourage it. Engaging in activities like exercise, working, or substituting the smoking habit with eating could show a noticeable effect on their success to overcome smoking.

Key words: Smoking, abstinence, habit, exercise