How does the scientific literature approach Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and tobacco use in pandemic days?

摘要

Introduction:Since the early days of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, tobacco use and COVID-19 relationship has been one of the major concerns of the scientific research. Nevertheless, there are still many unknown issues. In this paper, it was aimed to investigate how “recent” scientific literature approached to “COVID-19” and “tobacco use”.Materials and Method:Keywords were given in (Novel Coronavirus Disease) OR (COVID-19)) AND ((tobacco smoke) OR (tobacco) OR (smoking)) configuration and 161 manuscripts were accessed via online Pubmed search on July 14, 2020 (6pm, Turkish Local Time). Among 161, 16 articles were not specifically on COVID-19, 12 were not on tobacco. Finally, 133 articles were included in the study.Findings:The first article was published in March. The number of the published articles increased in the following months (n=53, June 2020). Impact factors of the journals in which the articles were published varied between 0.240 and 74.699. Among 133 articles, 64 were in “original article” category (48.1%). “Letter to the editor (10.5%)” and “review article (10.5%)” were the second highest categories. Tobacco use as a general concept was used in the articles. However, cigarette smoke was the most frequent tobacco product which the articles investigated (n=99). In 106 articles, COVID-19 and tobacco use relationship were emphasized. Active tobacco use was the concern in 118 articles (88.7%) whereas only 13 articles (9.8%) issued passive smoking. Chronic diseases were issued in 81 articles (60.9%). Tobacco control measurements were recommended in only 27 articles (20.3%). The general recommendations of the articles were basically on quitting. Tobacco industry struggle was recommended in only two articles.Conclusion:Articles investigated in this paper issued different aspects of tobacco use and COVID-19 relationship. Nevertheless, tobacco control measures were not sufficiently tackled in a comprehensive approach in the manuscripts.