Association of smoking with some aspects of pulmonary tuberculosis in Central Chest Clinic, Colombo

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES; to study the association of smoking with some aspects of sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis (SP-PTB) in Central chest clinic, Colombo (CCC). Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study recruited 99 consecutive SP-PTB patients (both new and re treatment) registered in CCC and produced treatment outcome as cured, treatment completion or treatment failures. Data were collected by the principal investigator using a questionnaire and data extraction sheet. Smoking status was categorised into ever smoked and never smoked. Pre-treatment sputum status was categorised as <1+ (scanty/ 1+) and >2+ (2+/S+). Chi-square test was used as significance test. RESULTS: Of the 29 female participants, only one had ever smoked in life. Hence, only males were included in the subsequent analysis. Among males, 56 (80.0%) answered as ever smoked and 21 (30.0%) were current smokers. Median age was 50 years (IQR: 45 to 60) among those ever smoked and 46 years (IQR: 21 to 51) among those never smoked. Smoking status was not associated with sputum status of first smear (p=0.53). Smoking status was significantly associated with sputum status of second smear (p=0.02), third smear (p=0.001) and pretreatment smear p=0.04). Association was not significant with smoking status and category of treatment (p=0.4), delay in sputum conversion (p=0.43), chest X-ray findings such as upper lobe infiltration (p=0.62), cavitation (p=0.1) and multiple lobe involvement (p=0.2). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of smoking was higher in patient with sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis. Second and third sample showed significant positivity in smokers than non smokers.