No abstract

Cigarette smoking is an addictive and destructive behavior and it can cause serious health problems and most important preventable cause of death in the world. In the present study using questionnaire data of smokers (n = 323) and non-smokers (n=218)from the patients in the Out Patients Department (OPD) of civil hospital Quetta was collected. Based on smoking history, the study population was categorized into smokers (<25 cigarettes/day), and non-smokers while smokers were further subdivided into three sub-categories based on their ages: up to 35, up to 50, and above 50. The results depicts that the mean hemoglobin (Hb) levels of smokers and non-smokers were 15.9+0.4g/L and 12.6+0.5g/L respectively, which increased progressively with the number of cigarettes consumed per day. It was observed that 0%, 53.11% and 68.92 were suffering from Chest diseases in group 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In case of high blood pressure population belonging to group 1 and 2 showed greater percentage while group 3 showed lower percentage. Increase in the percentage of heart diseases with age and smoking habit was also observed in all three groups which were prominent in group 3. The present study confirms that the smoking had severe effects on health of the smokers causing lungs and heart diseases. Furthermore, the implications could be made that 60% of the total population is smokers which are the indicator in increase attitude of community towards smoking despite many initiative of declaring smoking as taboo by government and tradition of the area.