COVID-19 and beliefs about tobacco use: an online cross-sectional study in Iran.

COVID-19 and beliefs about tobacco use: an online cross-sectional study in Iran. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Oct 07;: Authors: Kalan ME, Ghobadi H, Taleb ZB, Adham D, Cobb CO, Ward KD, Behaleh R, Fazlzadeh M Abstract There is mixed evidence surrounding the relationship between tobacco use and COVID-19 infection/progression. The current study investigates beliefs and tobacco use behaviors and COVID-19 infection among a sample of smokers and never-smokers. Data were collected using an online survey distributed through Telegram, a cloud-based social media networking application in Iran from April 1 to May 31, 2020. The study participants included never-smokers (n = 511), current (past-month) waterpipe smokers (n = 89), current cigarette smokers (n = 158), and ex-smokers (n = 172). Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare tobacco use groups with never- smokers on beliefs, controlling for potential confounders. The study participants (n = 944) was mostly male (64%), had > high school education (76%), and lived in an urban area (91%), with mean ± SD age of 35.3 ± 10.8. Key findings of this study are that compared with never-smokers: (1) cigarette smokers were less likely to believe that smoking cigarette can lead to spreading COVID-19; (2) waterpipe smokers were more likely to believe that smoking waterpipe at home was a safe practice, that waterpipe protects against COVID-19, and smoking waterpipe may lead to a more r...
Source: Environmental Science and Pollution Research International - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Environ Sci Pollut Res Int Source Type: research