Avaliação da função pulmonar em acadêmicos do ensino superior usuários e não usuários de cigarro eletrônico: um estudo comparativo

Abstract

The alarming growth in the use of electronic cigarettes has sparked action in public health and studies proving their harmful effects. The name of the moment is vape, where traditional smoking is falling out of use and the consumption of electronic devices is increasing, which is accompanied by negative effects on lung health. The aim of this study was to assess the lung function of higher education students who were users and non-users of electronic cigarettes. Specifically, it sought to compare lung function and cardiovascular parameters, to ascertain the heart rate and blood pressure of the groups and to verify the relationship between e-cigarette use and social lifestyle habits. This is a quantitative, analytical, observational and cross-sectional study, approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) under protocol number 7.031.667. The target audience for this study, which had a sample of 28 university students, was carefully selected according to the following inclusion criteria: to be a volunteer and a student on any UNDB course, to be between 18-29 years old and to be an e-cigarette user or never to have used one. All the data was collected using the evaluation form, which collects information and the result of the individual spirometry test, and the questionnaire drawn up by the author of the research, which asks about the participants' lifestyle habits that may be related to the use or not of electronic cigarettes. Spirometry was carried out and the MIR Spiro 2.0 - Platinum software delivered the results, which were graded by an Itórax pulmonologist. Once the data collection was complete, it was tabulated in Microsoft Excel and then analyzed in this software with the help of Bioestat, version 5.0, considering a significance level of 5% in all tests. The results showed that women made up the majority of e-smokers, that alcohol intake, weekly attendance at parties and drug use were related to e-cigarette use and that a considerable number had some kind of ventilatory disorder. It was concluded that these results suggest the importance of more studies on this subject, with a larger sample of participants, separated by a control group, EC smokers with nicotine, and EC smokers without nicotine, over a longer period of time.