Current tobacco use and COVID-19 diagnoses in a cohort of adult clients of public dental clinics in Sweden.

Smoking has been linked with both increased and decreased risk of COVID-19, prompting the hypothesis of a protective role of nicotine in the pathogenesis of the disease. Studies of the association between use of smokeless tobacco and COVID-19 would help refining this hypothesis. We analysed data from 424,386 residents in the Stockholm Region, Sweden, with information on smoking and smokeless tobacco (snus) use prior to the pandemic obtained from dental records. Diagnoses of COVID-19 between February and October 2020 were obtained from health-care registers. We estimated the risk of receiving a diagnosis of COVID-19 for current smokers and for current snus users relative to non-users of tobacco, adjusting for potential confounders (aRR). The aRR of COVID -19 was elevated for current snus users (1.09 ;95%CI = 0.99-1.21 among men and 1.15; 95%CI = 1.00-1.33 among women). The risk for women consuming more than 1 can/day was twice as high as among non-users of tobacco. Current smoking was negatively associated with risk of COVID-19 (aRR = 0.68; 95% CI = 0.61-0.75); including hospital admission (aRR = 0.60; 95% CI = 0.47-0.76) and intensive care (aRR = 0.43; 95% CI = 0.21-0.89). The hypothesis of a protective effect of tobacco nicotine on COVID-19 was not supported by the findings. The negative association between smoking and COVID-19 remains unexplained.

Factors associated with chemsex in Portugal during the COVID-19 pandemic

OBJECTIVE: to investigate the factors associated with the practice of sex under the influence of drugs (chemsex) among Portuguese men who have sex with men during the period of social distancing to prevent the COVID-19. METHOD: online survey applied in May 2020 to a sample of 1,301 participants living in Portugal, recruited according to Respondent Driven Sampling and via social media Facebook R. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed along with logistic regression to calculate adjusted Odds Ratio (ORa). RESULTS: the prevalence of chemsex was 20.2%. The likelihood of practicing chemsex increased with group sex (ORa: 28.4, 95%CI 16.93-47.49);unprotected sex (ORa: 7.1 95%CI 4.57-10.99);the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent COVID-19 (ORa: 4.2, 95%CI 2.71-6.39) and COVID-19 testing (ORa: 1.9, 95%CI 1.15-3.10). CONCLUSION: the practice of chemsex among men who have sex with men during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal was very frequent and may support greater understanding of the role and impact of sexual behavior on the COVID-19 transmission rates and the current pandemic situation in Portugal.