Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at assessing whether the dental and medical prac-titioners in Saudi Arabia are aware of the smok-ing cessation smartphone applications and their opinions about this method used in smoking cessation.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A self-reporting questionnaire was designed to assess the level of knowledge and awareness among the dental and medical practitioners regarding the smart -phone mobile applications for smoking cessa-tion. The content of the questionnaire was vali-dated and sent to individual physicians through email, WhatsApp, Twitter and other social me-dia platforms, which also contained a consent form and explanation of the study. Responses were summarized using descriptive statistics by frequencies and percentages. A Chi-square test was used to observe the differences in opin-ions of smoking cessation apps between smok-ers and non-smokers among all the participants.RESULTS: A total of 420 responses were ob-tained from the dental and medical profession-als (291 males and 129 females) in different ranks. Among all the participants, 46.7% were in the age range of 30-40 years. The profession of the participants was divided into four groups and general dental practitioners are the most respondents compared to other practitioners. Among all the participants, 31% were smokers and the rest were non-smokers. Overall, 12.6% of participants and 20.8% of participants who were smokers were aware of the mobile appli-cations which are used for smoking cessation.CONCLUSIONS: The dental and medical practi-tioners in Saudi Arabia are not relatively acquaint-ed with mobile apps for smoking cessation.