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COVID-19 pandemic, considered as a major health challenge in the world, has\u00a0 led\u00a0 to deaths, business\u00a0 closures,\u00a0 loss\u00a0 of\u00a0 income\u00a0 and livelihoods, a\u00a0 rise\u00a0 in\u00a0 mental\u00a0 distress and an inevitable impact\u00a0 on\u00a0 health behaviours.<\/p>\n
As COVID-19 is a respiratory disease lot of speculations do arise in the minds of the smokers regarding their susceptibility to get the disease due to their smoking habits. Assessing\u00a0 these changes is\u00a0 essential\u00a0 for low and\u00a0 middle income\u00a0 countries where\u00a0 the\u00a0 vast majority\u00a0 of\u00a0 tobacco\u00a0 users\u00a0 live\u00a0 but\u00a0 cessation\u00a0 support\u00a0 is\u00a0 still\u00a0 rudimentary.<\/p>\n
In the light of this, a study done in Pakistan by Kamran Siddiqi,PhD et al, Affiliated to University of York, UK and The Initiative, Pakistan, has randomly recruited 2062 cigarette smokers and their change in patterns of smoking were observed throughout the pandemic period. The researchers found\u00a0 bidirectional\u00a0 changes\u00a0 in\u00a0 smoking\u00a0 patterns, while majority of smokers reported either quitting or reduction of smoking, some reported an increase of smoking too.<\/p>\n
Out of all the participants 14% smokers\u00a0 reported\u00a0 quitting and among\u00a0 those\u00a0 who\u00a0 continued\u00a0 smoking\u00a0 68%\u00a0 have reduced the smoking patterns. Apart from the potential\u00a0 risks of smoking like high risk of infection,\u00a0 hospitalization and mortality associated with COVID-19, lack of access,\u00a0 affordability and opportunity\u00a0 to\u00a0 smoke during the lock down times have also affected the positive changes in their habits, especially among the smokers in low income category with a risk \u00a0 to\u00a0 lose\u00a0 their jobs if they\u00a0 continued\u00a0 smoking during the pandemic times.<\/p>\n
Out of those who continued smoking, 14% have maintained as per the pre-COVID era, 18% have increased\u00a0 cigarette\u00a0 use. Out of those who stopped smoking, 39% have\u00a0 relapsed in\u00a0 the\u00a0 subsequent\u00a0 months.\u00a0 Mental\u00a0 stress,\u00a0 anxiety,\u00a0 social\u00a0 isolation during pandemic times and\u00a0 lack\u00a0 of\u00a0 access\u00a0 to\u00a0 cessation\u00a0 support were identified as the causative factors for the increased\u00a0 consumption and relapses. The majority of them were financially\u00a0 stable\u00a0 than\u00a0 the\u00a0 rest\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 cohort.<\/p>\n
More efficient smoking\u00a0 cessation\u00a0 treatments and interventions could\u00a0 have\u00a0 converted\u00a0 these unusually\u00a0 high\u00a0 number\u00a0 of\u00a0 quit\u00a0 attempts (including the later relapsed cases) observed\u00a0 among\u00a0 smokers\u00a0 during\u00a0 COVID-19\u00a0 into\u00a0 permanent\u00a0 abstinence. Even\u00a0 small\u00a0 scale\u00a0 changes\u00a0 in\u00a0 tobacco\u00a0 use\u00a0 consumed\u00a0 by\u00a0 over\u00a0 a\u00a0 billion people\u00a0 worldwide,\u00a0 could\u00a0 lead\u00a0 to\u00a0 major\u00a0 shifts\u00a0 in\u00a0 future\u00a0 disease\u00a0 burden.\u00a0 More\u00a0 importantly,\u00a0 a\u00a0 better understanding\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 magnitude\u00a0 and\u00a0 nature\u00a0 of\u00a0 such\u00a0 behaviour\u00a0 change\u00a0 can\u00a0 help\u00a0 services\u00a0 and policymakers\u00a0 to\u00a0 respond\u00a0 in\u00a0 an agile\u00a0 and\u00a0 effective\u00a0 manner.<\/p>\n
Offering\u00a0 smoking\u00a0 cessation\u00a0 treatment by\u00a0 implementing\u00a0 Article\u00a0 14\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 WHO\u00a0 Framework\u00a0 Convention\u00a0 for\u00a0 Tobacco\u00a0 Control\u00a0 should\u00a0 become an\u00a0 even\u00a0 greater\u00a0 priority\u00a0 for\u00a0 countries\u00a0 like\u00a0 Pakistan\u00a0 where\u00a0 millions\u00a0 of\u00a0 smokers\u00a0 are\u00a0 willing\u00a0 to\u00a0 quit\u00a0 but have\u00a0 little\u00a0 access to\u00a0 cessation\u00a0 interventions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COVID-19 pandemic, considered as a major health challenge in the world, has\u00a0 led\u00a0 to deaths, business\u00a0 closures,\u00a0 loss\u00a0 of\u00a0 income\u00a0 and livelihoods, a\u00a0 rise\u00a0 in\u00a0 mental\u00a0 distress and an inevitable impact\u00a0 on\u00a0 health behaviours. As COVID-19 is a respiratory disease lot of speculations do arise in the minds of the smokers regarding their susceptibility to get the disease due to their smoking habits. Assessing\u00a0 these changes is\u00a0 essential\u00a0 for low […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[17,18,19,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1813"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1816,"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions\/1816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarccct.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}