The impact of COVID-19 on smoking patterns in Pakistan: findings from a longitudinal survey of smokers

Abstract

Introduction
We investigated the influence of COVID-19 on smoking patterns in Pakistan.
Methods
In a longitudinal survey, we asked cigarette smokers in Pakistan about their smoking behaviours before and since COVID-19. Smokers were recruited before COVID-19 using two-stage random probability sampling. Since COVID-19, three subsequent waves were conducted over the telephone, asking additional questions on social determinants, mental health and wellbeing. Based on the first two waves, we estimated the proportion of smokers who stopped, decreased, maintained, or increased smoking. We also explored any factors associated with the change in smoking patterns. In those who stopped smoking soon after COVID-19, we estimated the proportion relapsed in subsequent waves. We estimated all proportions based on complete-case analysis.

Rights

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntaa207

Repository URI

https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-impact-of-covid19-on-smoking-patterns-in-pakistan(bfc5c6ab-4e4d-4d05-be30-68a4b50d37ce).html