Differences in Clinical Outcomes between Smokers and Non-Smokers infected with COVID-19

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor associated with different diseases, claiming millions of lives annually. Smoking status has been studied for a long time and proved to be a major cause of smokers' decreased immunity. In the present pandemic COVID-19 disease, there was an unclear belief about the effect of smoking on patients with COVID-19. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on the sequelae of COVID-19. This cross-sectional study involved 200 COVID-19 patients (114 males and 86 females) aged 13-77 years. A number of 87 patients were smokers, and the rest of them were non-smokers. All patients underwent a comprehensive laboratory assessment and diagnosis by full medical history by the physicians. The results indicated a significant difference (P<0.001) between smokers and non-smokers in terms of hypertension, anticoagulant, steroid therapy, pulmonary lesion, oxygen saturation, and duration of disease. As an overall conclusion, it can be stated that COVID-19 is less severe in smokers and they require less intensive treatment.