Smoking prevalence among sixteen- to eighteen-year-old students in secondary schools located in Riyadh was "high and alarming", according to a 2011 study published in the Annals of Thoracic Medicine.[9] Out of 1272 students studied, the percentage of students that were currently smoking was about 19.5% (31.2% of boys and 8.9% of girls), and the percentage of students that had smoked before was about 42.8% (55.6% of boys and 31.4% of girls).[9] Smoking habits are linked to males, friends that smoke and parents that smoke.[9] Two reasons why youth in Saudi Arabia smoked were because it made people "look more comfortable" and made people of the opposite sex more attractive.[9] 88.4% of students believed that smoking is harmful to one's health, but only 31.8% of students wanted to quit smoking, according to the 2011 study.[9] The authors of this study believe that educational programs on the risks of smoking need to be implemented in schools in order to reduce smoking rates.[9]