Alarming increased rate of smoking and associated lifestyle behaviours in patients with chronic cardiac diseases during COVID-19 pandemic related lockdown

Background COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown is a situation associating social and physical isolation, limited care access, psychological stress, and potential adoption of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours such as smoking. In a cohort of outpatients with chronic cardiac diseases, including congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic coronary syndromes (CCS), we aimed to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 outbreak on tobacco consumption. Patients and methods During the 6th week of lockdown (which had started on March, 17th), 150 randomly selected CHF patients (from the Dijon HF-Clinic) and 250 CCS patients from the RICO survey were invited to answer an anonymous questionnaire. The 20-min lasting phone…