Poverty and tuberculosis: is it truly a simple inverse linear correlation?

patients were interviewed 3.7¡1.88 yrs (maximum range 1.1–6.3 yrs) after the diagnosis. In total, 190 (61%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 55–67) patients confirmed a smoking history (active or former) at the time of pulmonary embolism, of whom 94 (30%, 95% CI 25–36) patients were actively smoking. Out of these 94 patients, 32 (35%, 95% CI 25–45) had successfully quit smoking in the first year following the diagnosis. Overall, only two (0.64%, 95% CI 0.08–2.3) patients started smoking after the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. The percentage of quitters was not associated with age in the pulmonary embolism cohort.