Smoking is associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 symptoms and smokers are more likely to attend hospital than non-smokers, a King's Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine study has found.
The study published today in Thorax, by researchers from King’s , investigates the association between smoking and the severity of the COVID-19.
Researchers analysed data from the ZOE COVID Symptom Study App. Of the participants of the app, 11% were smokers. This is a lower proportion than the overall UK population of 14.7%, however, it reflects the demographics of the self-selected sample of the ZOE COVID Symptom Study.
While more than a third of users reported not feeling physically well during the period of study (24th March and April 202, current smokers were 14% more likely to develop the classic triad of symptoms suggesting diagnosis of COVID-19: fever, persistent cough and shortness of breath – compared to non-smokers.