000197 - Studies on the effects of various tobacco and nicotine use methods on the course and control of asthma

The aim of our study is to assess the impact of electronic cigarettes – electronic nicotine delivery systems (classic vaporizers using nicotine or nicotine-free solution) and electronic tobacco heating systems –on the course and control of bronchial asthma, as well as changes in the inflammation profile.

This is an open observational clinical study. After obtaining informed consent, all visit procedures were carried out for the patients. The procedures include the assessment of medical history and physical examination: analysis of medical history data from medical records in the database, conducting a survey with a written questionnaire, filling out the ACT, filling out the AQLQ, as well as conducting a clinical and functional examination (conducting spirometry and assessing the level of nitric oxide in exhaled air).

The study is conducted at the allergy department. At the time of writing the article, 47 patients were included in the analysis, of which 46 were men and 1 woman. The average age is 21.95±2.31 years. Of these, 20 patients do not smoke, 6 people smoke classic cigarettes, 17 people use electronic nicotine delivery systems with or without nicotine, and 4 people use electronic tobacco heating systems.

In all groups of patients, there is an active impact of an adverse factor – passive smoking. Thus, 38 (80.8%) respondents noted that they are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke from their immediate environment4.

In the group of patients who use electronic nicotine delivery systems with or without nicotine, there is frequent use of two/three methods of consumption. For example, out of 17 people, 9 used ENDS and cigarettes, 3 of which used nicotine-free ENDS and classic cigarettes, and 6 used nicotine ENDS and cigarettes, 1 combined nicotine ENDS and nicotine-free ENDS. A total of 14 people used nicotine ENDS, and 2 also regularly smoked hookah along with using ENDS. When analyzing the data, the following stands out: non-smokers have a slightly higher average score on the ACT questionnaire (17.22) compared to smokers (16.75), but smokers have a wider range of ACT results (from 10 to 25), while non-smokers have a range from 11 to 23. The standard deviation is higher among smokers, indicating greater variability in asthma control among them.

For smokers, the strongest negative correlation is observed between the ACT questionnaire results and BMI. This means that smokers with a higher body mass index have worse asthma control. A weak correlation was found between the number of smoking methods, smoking history, and the level of asthma control. The influence of age on the ACT results in smokers is almost absent. Correlation analysis between asthma control level indicators according to the ACT questionnaire and age, BMI.

There was a tendency to deteriorate the quality of life among smokers as BMI, smoking history, and age increase. This emphasizes the negative impact of smoking and weight gain on the quality of life in asthma