Prevalence of smoking among surgical patients and their knowledge about abstinence from smoking before surgery in tertiary care hospitals in the largest city of Pakistan: A cross sectional study

ABSTRACT

Smoking is a known risk factor for a wide range of potential perioperative complications. Mehar R. et al. 2002 estimated a prevalence of smoking in general population of Karachi, it was reported 32.7%. The prevalence of smoking among surgical patient was around 20% in a systematic review by Wong J. et al. 2012. The aims of our study were to estimate the prevalence of smoking among surgical patients in the tertiary care hospitals of Karachi and to evaluate the knowledge of the patient about the need of smoking abstinence. The data was collected from the anaesthesia and surgery clinics of two public sector (i.e. Abbasi Shaheed hospital &Civil Hospital) and one private tertiary care hospital (i.e. Aga khan University hospital) of Karachi, Pakistan. A total of 811 patients were enrolled from July 30th 2019 to March 17th 2020. With the emergence of COVID pandemic in March 2020, elective surgical lists were halted in the selected hospitals so, we stopped our recruitment and concluded the study. Overall prevalence of smoking among surgical patients in all three hospitals during the above mentioned period came out to be 20.2%, with highest proportion in Civil hospital Karachi (i.e. 27.6%) and lowest in Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Karachi (i.e. 17%). The prevalence of smoking in Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi was came out to be 19.3%. Educational status was also cross tabulated with smoking status which came out that 23.0% of illiterate patients, 19.7% undergraduates, 20.6% graduates and 14.7% with postgraduate education were smokers. In conclusion, burden of smoking in surgical patients in Karachi was quiet significant and the knowledge about the preoperative smoking abstinence and potential perioperative complication were relatively more among the educated patients. Role of Anaesthesiologist and surgeon in educating patients was quiet insignificant (11% Vs 9% respectively).