Publication:

Tobacco, alcohol use and underlying comorbidities in symptomatic COVID-19 cases versus asymptomatic COVID-19 cases: a case control study in Mumbai city

Background Coronavirus disease-2019 belonging to Corona virus family, was first reported in Wuhan, China in November 2019 which is an ongoing Pandemic. The apparent vulnerable group more susceptible to the symptomatic infection are the elderly population, tobacco and alcohol users and people having underlying comorbid conditions.

Methods An unmatched case-control study was conducted in March 2021 through purposive sampling amongst the Covid-19 infected population. The socio-demographic details, use of tobacco, alcohol and underlying comorbid conditions were studied to show the association with symptomatic Covid-19 infection, in the population more than 18 years of age in Mumbai City.

Results Out of the total 528 Covid-19 infected individuals, 38.8% were symptomatic and 61.2% were asymptomatic. The elderly population and the underlying comorbid conditions were not found to be associated with symptomatic Covid-19 infection. Alcohol consumption (OR 0.87 (95% CI -0.39, 1.92)), and both alcohol consumption and smoking (OR 0.94[95% CI 0.45, 1.97) association with symptomatic Covid-19 infection were found to be insignificant at 95% CI in the present study whereas significant negative association was observed in smoking (OR 0.21 (95% CI 0.08, 0.53)) with symptomatic covid-19 infection.

Conclusions Covid-19, addiction and the non-communicable diseases together is a major public health concern in India. Since no significant association was found, study on other unknown factors like the genetics, race, ongoing treatment for underlying comorbid disease and other should be conducted to understand the actual risk factors of the novel disease.