Diarrhoea and smoking: an analysis of decades of observational data from Bangladesh

摘要

BackgroundAlthough cigarette smoking affects all biological systems of the human body including the gastrointestinal tract, there is a lack of evidence regarding its effect on the severity of diarrhoeal disease and whether a dose–response relationship exists. We therefore tested for the presence of specific causative pathogens for infectious diarrhoea, assessed the independent effect of smoking on its severity and tested whether any dose–response relationship existed while controlling for subjects’ age, sociodemographic characteristics and presence of causative pathogens in an urban setting in Bangladesh.