[Tobacco: risk factor in a health district]

To find the prevalence of tobacco dependency in our community and to identify tobacco consumption in our chronic patients.

A crossover study. A descriptive analysis of the data.

A Health District. Mixed population, both urban and rural.

A Health Survey which included 1,071 individuals (95% Confidence and 3% precision), selected by means of simple random sampling from the Municipal Census.

A 32.3% prevalence of tobacco dependency, greater among men (50.7%) than women (15.7%). Among the young, there is a marked tendency for the number of smokers to level out between the sexes. 15.6% of smokers consume more than 24 cigarettes per day. Between 15 and 20% of patients suffering hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia and the effects of ischaemic cardiopathy, along with 25% of those who had suffered a CVA and almost 40% of chronic bronchitics, continue to smoke.

Advice against smoking must be directed towards younger and younger age groups, including both men and women. The high prevalence of people still smoking among the chronically ill should cause us to reflect on our advice against tobacco to such patients.