Cigarette smoking is universally acknowledged to be a health hazard. W
e are of the opinion that primary health care (PHC) physicians can pot
entially play a key role in the promotion of non-smoking campaigns. Th
e aim of this study was to determine the role of male PHC physicians i
n the promotion of a non-smoking campaign among the citizens of Riyadh
. About half of the male PHC physicians from Riyadh were selected at r
andom, and were requested to fill an anonymous self-administered quest
ionnaire. The content of the questionnaire was validated by three expe
rts and the reliability was excellent, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.85
. The result of the study showed that about 63% of the physicians had
never smoked, 20% had stopped smoking, and 17% were still smoking an a
verage of 18 +/- 10 cigarettes per day. About 30% of the physicians ac
hieved satisfactory scores, while 7% were reported to play no role in
counseling against smoking. During the anti-smoking activity, only 10%
of physicians reported making use of religious reasons against smokin
g. Arab-speaking physicians were shown to be less active than non-Arab
s in counseling (P < 0.0001), and on-the-job training was found to be
associated with better counseling practices (P < 0.0221). Our conclusi
on is that the reported activity of physicians in the promotion of non
-smoking was far from exemplary, and so was their own smoking profile.
There is, therefore, an urgent need to put more emphasis on the promo
tion of non-smoking among both physicians and patients alike.