Smoking cessation efforts in special population: A review of research on muslim countries and communities

Although scenarios in global health are witnessing benefits from new medicines and technologies, nonetheless there are unprecedented reversals. As a consequence, the concerning international organizations have supported more novel approaches in promoting health risk reduction. The idea of culture understanding has emerged as a key factor in the agenda of health promotion and education. The rising consciousness about culture argues both for a shift in the philosophical and theoretical approaches and in methods underpinning health communication, promotion and education. It has been argued that norms are not a unitary concept and the assessment of different kinds of norms can improve its predictive power. According to some theories, social and religious norms are one of the key influences on people's behaviour. Evidence in support of the theories has been established across a wide range of behavioural domains including smoking and in a variety of populations. An awareness of their religious beliefs and rulings might increase the effectiveness of antismoking campaigns. On the other hand, a lack of understanding of Muslims and their cultural and religious tradition contributes to potential conflicts in health promotion. Smoking prevalence is generally high among Muslims which considered as a special population according to their religious and social norms and believes. Knowledge of Muslim religious beliefs and customs is important to understanding smoking behaviour and considering how best to deliver appropriate health promotional messages and interventions. Therefore, this review study was intended to summarize smoking cessation research efforts in Muslim world and communities in the Western World and help researchers to design effective smoking prevention programs targeting Muslim smokers, in the hope of restriction the rising smoking epidemic in the Muslim world. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.