COVID-19 among Smokers and Non-smokers in Erbil City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15218/ejnm.2025.04Keywords:
Smoking, Household, Survey, COVID-19, Non-smokersAbstract
Background and objectives: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a severe respiratory syndrome caused by a novel strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), became a global public health concern and was declared a pandemic by WHO. The associations between smoking and COVID-19 infection and the outcomes were ambiguous. This study aimed to determine the associations of self-reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 among smokers and to compare it with the rate among non-smokers in Erbil City.
Methods: This cross-sectional house survey was conducted between September 2021 and June 2022 through a multi-stage cluster sampling method on a sample of 2601 respondents in Erbil city through direct interviews using a specially designed questionnaire to collect data.
Results: The mean age was 38.75 + 13.79 years (range 18 to 76 years). More than half (58.9%) of the sample were males. The proportion of current daily smokers was 44.3%, and 33.2% were those who had never smoked before. 17.5% of the sample were infected by the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic. There was a statistically significant association between the occurrence of COVID-19 and the age, gender, marital status, education level, occupation, smoking status, and socioeconomic level of participants.
Conclusion: The occurrence of COVID-19 among smokers was significantly higher than among non-smokers. A statistically significant association was found between self-reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the age, gender, marital status, education level, occupation, smoking status, and socioeconomic level of participants.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Kareem Jamal Hamad, Namir Ghanim Al-Tawil (Author)
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