Quality of Life in Cystic Fibrosis Patients According to Parental Smoking History

Providing facilities to achieve better living conditions in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is of particular importance. Smoking is one of the known factors that aggravate CF. But the effects of exposure to secondhand smoke of the parents of a non-smoker CF patient are not very clear. Therefore, in this study we decided to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) in patients with CF, based on the smoking history of their parents.In this cross-sectional and analyticalstudy, 100 CF patients who were referred and admitted to Dr. Masih Daneshvari Hospital of Tehran during 2019-2021, were selected by convenience sampling. After measuring height and weight, body mass index was calculated and the relationship between the factors (including smoking in parents, pulmonary function tests and body mass index) with the QOL of the participants was assessed. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. Using SPSS Ver.20 software and statistical tests (e.g. independent t and Pearsontests), data analysis was performed. The significance level was considered as 0.05.There was no statistically significant difference between the QOL of the patients in two groups of smokers and non-smokers parents, however the physical and social functions and severity of the disease in the group of smoker family was lower than the other group (P>0.05). In the smoker family group, the QOL of CF patients (in physical, emotional and social functions and also disease severity items) had no significant relation with the family degree of smoker person (P> 0.05); meanwhile the QOL was lower in patients whose father was a smoker. In the present study, there was no significant relationship between the QOL of patients in the smoker family group with the number of daily consumption of tobacco (cigarettes) and also the duration years of family smoking.the findings of this study showed that smoking reduces the QOL score of patients with cystic fibrosis. Therefore, it is seriously needed to emphasize on the attention of the parents and relatives of the CF patients to enhance their QOL. Although, the results showed no statistically significant relationship between QOL decrement of CF cases and smoking habit of their parents, it is suggested that this study be performed with higher sample size and in different places, in order to have comparable results.