Abstract
INTRODUCTION: In recent years, tobacco smoking has become a major public health concern in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), particularly among adolescents and college students. Hence, the current study aimed to collect the available evidence of smoking prevalence in KSA over the past decade (2014-2023) among college students in KSA and to find its pooled prevalence. METHODS: This meta-analysis obtained relevant studies from PubMed, published during the period April 2014 to June 2023. All articles published in English in study venues within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on smoking prevalence/ epidemiology/factors among undergraduate and/or college-going students were included. Systematic review and review articles were excluded. MedCalc was used to calculate the pooled prevalence (95% CI). RESULTS: Among the 258 initial pool of articles, 34 fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Further screening revealed only 34 articles met the inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis. These studies' minimum and maximum sample sizes were 208 and 3322, respectively. The lowest prevalence was 7.9%, and the highest was 59.57%. Hence, using the random effect model, the pooled prevalence of this study was 24.5% (95% CI: 21.013-28.09). CONCLUSIONS: The pooled prevalence of smoking is found to be 24.5%. Periodical educational seminars and related content must be arranged for college/university students to minimize the prevalence; hence, by reducing the smoking prevalence, morbidity and mortality can be minimized.