Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 disease; It is a highly contagious and highly pathogenic disease. Many risk factors have been identified for the COVID-19 disease. Smoking is one of these risk factors. This study was conducted to reveal how the smoking habits of healthcare workers who were in close contact with infected patients during the COVID-19 pandemic changed and what factors caused these changes. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was carried out by applying an online questionnaire to 242 smokers of a pandemic hospital serving as a third step between 15 - 30 March 2021. The survey starts with questions such as age, gender, occupation; Whether or not to have COVID-19 continues with questions about how smoking habits have changed during the COVID-19 period and ends with the Fagenstrom Nicotine Addiction questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS 26.0 package program and chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables between groups. RESULTS: Of the participants, 131 (54.1%) were men and 111 (45.9%) were women. 90 people (37.2%) were doctors and 152 (62.8%) were assistant health personnel. Among the participants, 58 (24%) had COVID-19, while 184 (76%) had not had COVID-19. It was learned that 55 (22.7%) of the participants quit smoking during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Fagerström nicotine addiction test of 55 people who quit smoking during this period, 53 of them were found to be very little addicted-low addicted, while 2 of them were highly or very highly addicted. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic did not make a statistically significant difference on the smoking habits of health- care workers. Nicotine addictions played a direct role in the smoking habits of health workers in this period.

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