Document is current

Article History

Received: 23 January 2026

Accepted: 3 May 2026

First Online: 16 May 2026

Declarations

:

: Sultan Alhabdan, Abdalkareem Alashjaai, and Yusuff Adebayo Adebisi declare no competing interest. However, Yusuff Adebayo Adebisi has received funding in the past through the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship and the Kevin Molloy Fellowship, both awarded by Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC) UK, an independent public health organisation. KAC receives funding from Global Action to End Smoking (GA), an independent U.S. nonprofit 501(c) (3) grantmaking organisation that supports health and science research, cessation education, and agricultural transformation initiatives.

: This study uses secondary data from the Scottish Health Survey, an open-access, de-identified dataset available through the UK Data Service. The analysis involves secondary statistical analysis only, with no direct interaction with human participants. Ethical approval for the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) was obtained from the REC (Research Ethics Committee) of the NHS Scotland. The survey data are collected under the ethical approval granted to ScotCen Social Research and the Scottish Government Health Directorate. All data are anonymised and made publicly available via the UK Data Service, where secondary use for research purposes does not require additional institutional ethics approval.

: As this study involved secondary data analysis, no ethical approval or informed consent was required by the authors for this research, as it qualifies for exemption from human subjects research.

: This research did not involve any new data collection from human participants or animals.

: Informed consent was obtained from all Scottish Health Survey participants by the original data collectors at the time of survey administration, in accordance with the ethical approval granted to ScotCen Social Research and the Scottish Government Health Directorate.

: Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.