Association of passive smoking with respiratory symptoms and clinical correlates, among married women, in a rural community in Islamabad

Objective: to investigate the association of passive smoking with respiratory symptoms and clinical correlates in married women in a rural area of pakistan. method: a cross-sectional study was carried out on married women of nurpur shahan (rural islamabad) by means of an interviewer administered questionnaire. systematic sampling of households was done. a total of 296 women were surveyed. the study period extended from january to july 2009. all data was entered and analyzed using spss v 10.0. results: the two major respiratory symptoms that were found to be associated with passive smoking were sinusitis [adjusted o.r(95% ci) 2.2 (1.3 - 3.5), p=0.001] and cough [adjusted o.r (95%ci) 2.4 (1.2 - 4.8), p=0.017]. wood used as fuel for cooking purposes also contributed to one of the symptoms such as headache (p=0.007). the pulse rate (79 ± 11 beats/min) of the passive smoking women was statistically significantly higher than the pulse rate (76 ± 9 beats/min) of the non-passive smoking women (p=0.012). conclusion: passive smoking was found to be associated with respiratory symptoms among married women in this study. higher pulse rate was associated with passive smoking (jpma 60:601; 2010).