Smoking exacerbates Covid symptoms, studies show
Smoking is a major risk factor contributing to more serious illness from Covid-19 and hospitalization, according to recent analysis by the Cardiology Clinic of Athens University.
Although during the initial phase of the pandemic it was observed that the percentage of smokers hospitalized due to Covid-19 was lower than that of the general population, a careful and longer analysis of the data showed that this is anything but the case.
More specifically, the systematic review and meta-analysis of 18 studies conducted by the Cardiology Clinic of Athens University at the capital’s Ippokrateio Hospital, using a sample of 6,310 patients, showed that smoking actually increases the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 by 34%.
What’s more, patients that smoked had more symptoms (fever, cough and breathing difficulties) and were more likely to be hospitalized than non-smokers.
