Smoking prevalence in Covid-19 patients

TL;DR

This study analyzes smoking prevalence among hospitalized Covid-19 patients in Iran, finding a significant difference compared to the general population, indicating potential links between smoking and Covid-19 severity.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the difference in smoking rates between Covid-19 patients and the general Iranian population using statistical analysis.

Findings

Smoking prevalence is significantly different in Covid-19 patients compared to the general population.

The hypothesis of equal smoking rates was rejected based on chi-square tests.

Results were consistent across different subpopulations.

Abstract

We investigate the prevalence rate of smoking in Covid-19 patients and examine whether there is a difference in the distribution of smokers between the two statistical populations of critically ill patients with Covid-19 and the entire Iranian population or not. To do this, we first prepared a sample of 1040 Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals in Tehran, Rasht, and Bojnord. Then, through the non-parametric statistical runs test, we show that the sample was randomly selected, and it is possible to generalize the result of tests on the sample to the community of hospitalized Covid-19 patients. In continuation, we examined the hypothesis that the smoking prevalence among Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals is equal to the prevalence rate of smoking in Iranian society. For this purpose, we used the non-parametric chi-square test, and it was observed that this hypothesis is rejected. The data show a significant difference in the prevalence of smoking between critically ill Covid-19 patients and the whole of Iranian society. Additionally, we examined this hypothesis in some subpopulations, and the results were the same.