(Reuters) E-cigarette users who are infected with the coronavirus might be more likely to develop COVID-19-related symptoms than non-vapers, according to research published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.
Researchers compared 289 vapers to 1,445 people who did not smoke tobacco or vape with 1,445 other people who were similar in age and gender. All of them had confirmed coronavirus in PCR tests.
Compared to infected non-vapers and after accounting for participants’ other risk factors, infected vapers experienced higher rates of chest pain or tightness (16% versus 10%), chills (25% versus 19%), body aches (39% versus 32%), headaches (49% versus 41%), problems with smell and taste (37% versus 30%), nausea/vomiting/abdominal pain (16% versus 10%), diarrhea (16% versus 10%) and light-headedness (16% versus 9%).
“Our research was not designed to determine whether vaping increases the chance of developing COVID infection. However it is clear that the burden of symptoms in patients suffering from COVID-19 who smoke are more severe than those who don’t vape,” Dr. Robert Vassallo co-author of the study at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minnesota) said in a news release.
The inflammation caused by coronavirus as well as the inflammation caused by vaping could increase the risk of body-wide inflammation, with a resulting increase in symptoms, Vassallo and his colleagues suggested.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/3GtQZsc Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, online January 5, 2022.
