The effect of smoking status on disease severity in hospitalized patients followed-up for covid-19 pneumonia

Introduction:Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) virus, which has emerged since December 2019, still affects the world with all its violence. The disease presents with different clinical pictures ranging from an asymptomatic case to severe respiratory failure resulting in death. Our aim in this study, is to investigate the relation of smoking with symptoms, clinical course and disease severity in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia. Method: 107 patients who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia and received treatment, between st th February 1 , 2021 and March 15 , 2021, were analyzed retrospectively. In particular, their smoking history, symptoms at hospital admission, comorbidities, non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) and intensive care unit (ICU) requirements needed during hospitalization, mortality and the relationship between smoking status and disease severity were examined. Results: 107 patients (68 males and 39 females) with a mean age of 49 years, were included in the study. 42% of the patients were smokers, 22.4% quitters, and 35.5% of them had never smoked. Cough, sputum, and shortness of breath were found to be higher in smokers. Muscle and joint pain was statistically signicantly higher in the smoking group. The symptoms and length of hospital stay were not related with smoking status. Conclusion: As a result of our study; we found that symptoms, comorbidities, need for NIMV and mortality were higher in the smoking group and smoking was higher in the severe disease group. Although these differences were not statistically signicant, they were determined as numerical deections.