COVID-19 and beliefs about tobacco use: an online cross-sectional study in Iran

There is mixed evidence surrounding the relationship between tobacco use and COVID-19 infection/progression. The current study investigates beliefs and tobacco use behaviors and COVID-19 infection among a sample of smokers and never-smokers. Data were collected using an online survey distributed through Telegram, a cloud-based social media networking application in Iran from April 1 to May 31, 2020. The study participants included never-smokers (n= 511), current (past-month) waterpipe smokers (n= 89), current cigarette smokers (n= 158), and ex-smokers (n= 172). Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare tobacco use groups with never- smokers on beliefs, controlling for potential confounders. The study participants (n= 944) was mostly male (64%), had > high school education (76%), and lived in an urban area (91%), with mean +/- SD age of 35.3 +/- 10.8. Key findings of this study are that compared with never-smokers: (1) cigarette smokers were less likely to believe that smoking cigarette can lead to spreading COVID-19; (2) waterpipe smokers were more likely to believe that smoking waterpipe at home was a safe practice, that waterpipe protects against COVID-19, and smoking waterpipe may lead to a more rapid recovery from COVID-19; (3) both waterpipe and cigarette smokers believed that using e-cigarettes in public places was a safe practice during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (4) more than half of the ex-smokers stopped smoking due to COVID-19 and most of them planned to continue abstaining from smoking after the pandemic. Our findings underscore the need to raise awareness about the unsupported claims of a lower hazard of using tobacco products or possible protective effects against COVID-19 and to promote cessation programs.

Automated summary

The study found that compared to non-smokers, cigarette smokers were less likely to believe that smoking could lead to the spread of COVID-19, while waterpipe smokers were more likely to believe that waterpipes could protect against the virus. Over half of ex-smokers quit smoking due to the pandemic and most planned to continue abstaining post-pandemic.