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Review
. 2022 Jul 15:20:65.
doi: 10.18332/tid/150340. eCollection 2022.

Association between smoking and risk of death in patients with sepsis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Nai Zhang  1 , Yujuan Liu  1 , Chuang Yang  1 , Peng Zeng  1 , Tao Gong  1 , Lu Tao  1 , Xinai Li  2
Affiliations
Review

Association between smoking and risk of death in patients with sepsis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Nai Zhang et al. Tob Induc Dis. .

Abstract

Introduction: Although some research papers have suggested that smoking may increase mortality in patients with sepsis, no evidence has been produced in this regard. This systematic research evaluated the risk of death in patients with sepsis who were smokers to facilitate better clinical decision making.

Methods: This is a systematic review registered in PROPERO (CRD42022296654). Searches were conducted to identify suitable studies from the databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials from January 1980 to June 2021. Two independent reviewers screened the articles using keywords and extracted the data. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. The primary endpoints included the mortality of patients with sepsis.

Results: Five studies involving 2694 participants were included in our study. Among the five included articles, three studies had an NOS score of 6, while the other two had an NOS score of 7. The results showed that a significantly higher risk of death was observed in smokers with sepsis compared with non-smokers with sepsis (hazard ratio, HR=1.62; 95% CI: 1.11-2.37, p=0.01). Among the patients followed for more than 2 months, the mortality rate of smokers was significantly higher (2.33 times) than that of non-smokers (HR=2.33; 95% CI: 1.83-2.96, p<0.01). The difference in mortality did not reach statistical significance when the follow-up period was shorter than 2 months (HR=1.22; 95% CI: 0.96-1.56, p=0.10).

Conclusions: Smoking increased mortality in patients with sepsis when the follow-up period was longer than 2 months.

Keywords: follow-up period; meta-analysis; mortality; sepsis; smoking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and none was reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot regarding the risk of death between smokers vs non-smokers with sepsis
Figure 3
Figure 3
Galbraith radial plot of the included studies
Figure 4
Figure 4
Funnel plot analysis to detect publication bias
Figure 5
Figure 5
Forest plot evaluating mortality from sepsis between current smokers and non-smokers in studies with a follow-up above and below two months
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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