Quality of life in people who smoke; a cross-sectional study

20^th Global Nursing Education Conference

March 21-23, 2018 | New York, USA

Solbrith Wachsmann, Annika Billhult and Gun I Rembeck

V�¤stra G�¶talandsregionen, Sweden

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Background & Aim: Tobacco smoking is the leading preventable risk factor for disease in the world. In Sweden, about 12000 people die due to tobacco smoking and hundreds of thousands fall ill annually. Diseases caused by smoking are well known. Nowadays health related quality of life (HRQOL) is also recommended in clinical trials. The primary aim of this study was to compare HRQOL in people who smoke with a group that had never used tobacco. Method: Three thousands men and women were randomly selected by Swedish population database (SPAR) in rural areas in southwestern in Sweden. They received an invitation and a consent form by mail and were asked to complete two questionnaires: a self-constructed about tobacco use and the 36-item short form health survey (SF-36). The non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Individuals who smoked had statistically significant lower scores in seven of eight domains of the SF-36 (p<0.01) than those who never had used tobacco. Conclusions: Lower HRQOL was associated with smoking. Low HRQOL may lead to poor health. These are important findings for our health and medical care and those working with tobacco prevention and tobacco cessation

Biography :

Solbrith Wachsmann, has her research area in tobacco use and health-related quality of life. She has also studied if spirometry and physical fitness can give smoking cessation or increased physical activity will lead to higher HRQOL. She has long experience in Primary Care. She has worked with patients with asthma and COPD since 1995. She is working on smoking cessation and has education in tobacco prevention of 7.5 ECTS credit. She holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Specialist Nursing-Primary Health Care.