Investigation on smoking status of hypertensive elderly in Waigang Town of Shanghai: a cross-sectional study / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

ABSTRACT

Objective · To investigate the smoking hypertensive elderly, find out the status of smoking in this population, and explore effective system intervention. Methods · The smoking hypertensive elderly in Waigang Town of Shanghai who received free antihypertensive drugs were recruited to investigate and descriptively analyze the smoking status of them with questionnaires. Results · There were 77.6% of the smoking hypertensive elderly who began to smoke in the age of 13 to 25, and nearly 70% smoking for more than 40 years. There were 59.5% of these people smoking 11 to 29 cigarettes daily in recent 3 years, and 41.6% spending 200-299 yuan on smoking monthly. Conclusion · Currently almost 70% of the smoking hypertensive elderly, who receives free antihypertensive drugs, have been smoking for more than 40 years, and the average number of cigarettes smoked daily is big. It is clear that the health education attached to the policy of providing free antihypertensive drugs has not changed the behavior. Therefore, medical personnel still needs to contact the illness and smoking hazards to help the elderly reduce smoking. Besides, it proves that tobacco control should be implemented in the young population to control epidemic at the early stage.