The differences of characteristics between smokers and non-smokers among TB patients in a socio-economically underprivileged area in the Philippines

Abstract

Background: Smoking is one of the serious non-communicable health issues. Currently, 80% of the smokers in the world live in low- and middle income countries and many people die as a result of smoking or exposure to smoke. In terms of infectious diseases, tuberculosis (TB) still poses a serious threat. However, the relationship between smoking and TB. Smoking increases the risk of TB. Thus, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) and World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that smoking cessation programs are added into TB program. Effective smoking cessation programs require evidence based tailoring materials but there is a lack of the information about the community. This study aims to obtain data about the characteristics of smokers and non-smokers in urban economically underprivileged areas. The finding will be essential to guide further research for integrating smoking cessation program into TB programs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 263 TB patients from January 2015 to January 2016. A structured questionnaire was used in this study. The questionnaire is composed of six sections: patient profile, socio-demographics, TB symptoms, smoking motivation, smoking situation and Smoking Knowledge test. All respondents had their CO level measured using a Smokelyzer when they were recruited as an inclusion criteria to specify smoker or non-smoker. The data was analyzed Chi-square test. Results: The Smoking rate in males was 19.0% and 3.8% in females. This rate was lower than the national data. Moreover, the data obtained indicated that there were no significant differences in the characteristics between smokers and non-smokers on their patient’s profile, socio- demographics, TB symptoms and smoking knowledge test. However, there were significant differences in their smoking motivation which were the questions: 1. Does your close friend smoke? (χ2=10.2402, p=0.0372), 2. Have you received smoking prohibit information from your friend? (χ2=10.2402, p=0.0372) and from your family? (χ2=7.6099, p=0.005805). Interestingly, the smoking rate of family members and friend among smokers were higher than non-smoker. In addition, many smokers (73.3%) tried to quit smoking but almost all of them were unable to stop smoking. However, 96.7% of them were still willing to stop smoking. Conclusion and recommendation: This study was not consistent with the previous studies showing high smoking prevalence rate in socio-economically underprivileged areas and there were no different found characteristics between smokers and non-smokers. However, the data showed significant differences in their smoking motivation which means that the smokers might be influenced by the smoking behaviors of their friends and family members. Therefore, smoking cessation intervention for not only smokers themselves but also their family members and their friends is also one of the keys to reduce smoking rate in the community. To control on the monograph on TB and smoking is strongly demanded in a current public health field.