Tobacco and end stage renal disease: a multicenter, cross-sectional study in Argentinian Northern Patagonia

Background: Smoking and chronic kidney disease are major public health problems with common features -high prevalence and mortality, high cardiovascular risk, gender differences and high prevalence in low income people-, but the link between them is poorly recognized. Our objectives were to investigate the exposure of dialysis patients to tobacco and to know their smoking behavior. Methods: We performed a multicenter, cross-sectional study in nine dialysis units in the Argentinian Northern Patagonia. We investigated smoker status, lifetime tobacco consumption, current tobacco use, breath carbon monoxide and % carboxyhaemoglobin. Fagerström and Richmond tests were performed for active smokers. Statistical analysis: one way ANOVA and Tukey’s test for post hoc test. For exploratory analysis, frequency tables through chi-square distribution and single correspondence analysis were performed. Results: Six hundred thirty six patients (60.9 % males, 39.1 % females) were interviewed. Almost 70 % of them had had tobacco exposure. Excluding light smokers, the lifetime consumption was significantly different (p = 0.0052) between sexes (33.1 ± 2.4 pack/years in males and 18.2 ± 2.1 pack/years in females) The distribution of etiologies changed significantly (χ 2 p 
Source: Tobacco Induced Diseases - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Source Type: research