July 2008.indd


SULTAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL JOURNAL 
JULY 2008, VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2, P. 243-243
SULTAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY©
RECEIVED - 12TH APRIL 2008

Re:  Prevalence and Determinants of Waterpipe 
(‘sheesha’) Tobacco use among Adolescents in Oman

To the Editor,

We write in response to the above mentioned article which appeared in the March 2008 issue of SQUMJ.1  The
incidence of this emerging trend of waterpipe use is increasing at an alarming rate.2  Concerted efforts need to be 
made to actively alert young people in Oman to the potential hazards of this form of drug abuse. The importance
of this should not be underestimated, as the waterpipe could easily become a means of not only tobacco consump-
tion, but also other inhaled drugs of abuse.

At SQU College of Medicine, we have conducted a similar study using an anonymous questionnaire which was 
distributed to young Omanis in different regions of Oman. The main difference in our study was that our target
group was young Omanis, age range 16-26 years as compared to school going adolescents in the above study. 
Participants were SQU students, medical students and other young people from elsewhere in Oman and the total 
number was 1,000. Overall, our study showed a lower prevalence of sheesha smoking in young people compared 
to other studies.3 

We fully endorse the comments of the authors of the above study regarding introduction of comprehensive to-
bacco control legislation in Oman. Can we not campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of sheesha use 
among the youth of Oman?

Ragini Vaishnav 
Department of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacy
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University

Talal Al-Aghbari, Thuraiya Al-Masoudi, Maha Al-Jabri - Medical students
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University

R E FE R E N C E S
1. Al Lawati JA, Muula AS, Hilmi SA, Rudatsikira E. Prevalence and determinants of waterpipe tobacco use among adoles-

cents in Oman. SQU Med J  2008; 8:241-247.

2. Barry K, Yona Amitai. Waterpipe (Narghile) smoking: an emerging health risk behavior. Pediatrics 2005, 116:113-119.

3. Maziak W, Eisssenberg T, Rastam S, Hammal F, Asfar T, Bachir ME, et al. Beliefs and attitudes related to narghile (water-
pipe) smoking among university students in Syria. Ann Epidemiol 2004 Oct; 14:646-654.

L E T T E R  T O  T H E  E D I T O R