Analysis of the relationship between smoking and chronic respiratory symptoms, level of income and education

Abstract

Objective: In this study, we aimed to determine the general demographic characteristics of smokers and to define the association of smoking with respiratory symptoms, level of education and income.Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 1019 people aged 40 and over. A questionnaire containing questions about respiratory symptoms, tobacco use and risk factors for chronic respiratory diseases was applied to all the participants. The study participants were grouped regarding their smoking status as current smokers, never smokers and former smokers. Age, gender, marital status, education level, monthly income per house person were recorded for all participants.Results: 1019 people with a mean age of 53.20 ±9.06 years (range: 40-90 years) were included in the study. Among females, 72/486 were active smoker; while in males 226/533 were active smoker (p:0.001). Mid- high school and university graduates were more commonly smoker or former-smoker. Participants with higher monthly income per house person (> 1000 TRY) were significantly more commonly active-smoker. Cough and sputum for longer than 3 months was determined in 66 (6.5%) people while the triad of cough and sputum for longer than 3 months and dyspnea was determined in 36 (3.5%) people. Among those participants the ratio of smokers was significantly higher. A significant proportion of participants (63.8%) with the symptoms predicting chronic pulmonary diseases, were not having diagnosis of any chronic respiratory disease before.Conclusion: We determined that; unlike the previous reports educated and higher monthly income people were more commonly smoker. We also found that chronic respiratory diseases is not sufficiently diagnosed. In screening for early diagnosis of chronic pulmonary diseases, we think that symptomatic interrogation is still important for selection of target population.