Associations between Tobacco Use, Surges, and Vaccination Status over Time in the COVID-19 Era

Brandon W. Reed (), Arthur L. Brody, Andre Y. Sanavi and Neal Doran
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Brandon W. Reed: Mental Health Care Line, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161, USA
Arthur L. Brody: Mental Health Care Line, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161, USA
Andre Y. Sanavi: Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Neal Doran: Mental Health Care Line, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-8

Abstract: Because COVID-19 is a respiratory and cardiovascular disease, understanding behaviors that impact cardiopulmonary health, such as tobacco use, is particularly important. While early studies suggested no change in prevalence of tobacco use as COVID-19 emerged, pandemic fatigue, shifting levels of COVID-19 transmission, and vaccine availability have all changed since the start of the pandemic. The current study examined whether time, COVID-19 surges, and/or vaccination status were associated with likelihood of daily and non-daily tobacco use over the first 24 months of the pandemic. Data were obtained from electronic health records of healthcare visits ( n = 314,787) to four Southern California VA healthcare systems. Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that the likelihood of reporting both daily and non-daily tobacco use (versus non-use) increased over time. Daily and non-daily tobacco use were less common at visits that occurred during COVID-19 surges, as well as among veterans vaccinated against COVID-19. Our findings provide new insight into changes of tobacco use patterns and correlates across the first two years of this pandemic, and understanding these associations may facilitate understanding of health-related behaviors and inform clinical treatment of tobacco use disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: tobacco use disorder; tobacco dependence; veteran; COVID-19 pandemic; vaccinations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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