Doctors face increasing numbers of patients seeking help to stop smoking due to fears over COVID

Doctors throughout Spain are seeing increasing numbers of patients who want help to stop smoking due to fears of becoming infected with COVID.
As the saying goes: every cloud has a silver lining.
Spanish doctors, who are currently struggling in the midst of the sixth wave of COVID, are coming across growing numbers of patients who ask for help to stop smoking.
One of the main reasons given by patients for taking the decision to give up the harmful habit is fear of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Quarantine and the presence of vulnerable family members at home also may have increased the requests for help.
The data was obtained by the Spanish Society of General and Family Doctors (SEMG) in a recent survey titled ‘Survey on the attitudes of smoking patients and GPs in the primary attention process during the pandemic’.
The survey found that more than 90% of the doctors in the survey frequently treat patients who wish to stop smoking and around 7% have a personal inclination to prescribe medication for such purposes.
A total of 116 doctors participated in the survey. Each doctor completed a questionnaire with 40 questions and then asked their patients who were smokers a series of questions.
According to the results of the survey, around 80% of the doctors think that the evidence that COVID is transmitted in the air and the current restrictions are significant reasons why people wish to stop smoking. Around 65% of those questioned consider that a campaign on the dangers of tobacco would have an extremely positive effect in the current context of the pandemic.
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