Smoking in chronic hemodialysis patients: prevalence and cardiovascular morbidity

Introduction. Smoking is common in chronic hemodialysis patients who are characterized by a high cardiovascular risk. The objective of our study was to determine the prevalence of smoking in chronic hemodialysis patients and to evaluate cardiovascular risk in smoking patients compared to non-smokers. Patients and methods. This is a multicenter cross-sectional study over a period of 4 months, from July 2021 to October 2021, in the Agadir province. Results. Among the 245 patients interviewed, 9,4% were current smokers and 16,7% were former smokers. Compared to non-smoking patients, former and current smokers were predominantly male, had more comorbidities, higher diastolic blood pressure, higher mean ultrafiltration rate and more antihypertensive treatments. In multivariate analysis, active smoking was significantly associated with the presence of cardiovascular disease. Conclusion. Smoking is an important and modifiable cardiovascular risk factor in chronic hemodialysis patients.