Assessment of Smoking Habits of Healthcare Professionals during the Covid-19 Pandemic Period

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Our study aimed to assess the smoking habits of healthcare professionals who are at the forefront of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and are most exposed to the risk of getting infected and the factors affecting those habits. METHODS: All of 285 healthcare professionals who are 18 years old and over and are still smoking or quit smoking during the pandemic or started smoking during this period were included in the study. A sociodemographic data form and inventories were administered to the participants through the face-to-face interview method. RESULTS: All of 31 participants (10.88%) did not smoke in the pre-pandemic period but started smoking during the pandemic period, 230 participants (80.70%) were smokers in the pre-pandemic period and still continued to smoke, and 24 (8.42%) participants quit smoking due to the pandemic while they were smoking in the pre-pandemic period. It was observed that healthcare professionals considering whether or not to quit smoking and considering that smoking increased deaths from COVID-19 infection experienced more anxiety (respectively p=0.012; p=0.027). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Anxiety scores were found to be high among healthcare professionals who had COVID-19 and those who lost someone close to them due to COVID-19. It has been determined that the number of cigarettes smoked by healthcare professionals with high anxiety scores has decreased significantly.

Keywords

• anxiety
• covid-19
• healthcare professional
• smoking