Smoking status and self-rated health: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectivesSmoking is one of the most important factors in reducing health. The aim of this study was to undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between former and current smoking with self-rated health.MethodsPubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched using the search strategy. The search was limited to English studies published by March 2022. Odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were extracted from the eligible articles and these were pooled together with the random-effects method. Subgroup analyses were performed based on smoking status (former and current smoking) and gender. Heterogeneity and publication bias was assessed.ResultsFifty-two articles were included in this study. In the relationship between smoking and poor self-rated health, the odds ratio was 1.40 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) between 1.33-1.48. In the association between current smoking and poor self-rated health, the odds ratio was 1.51 with a 95% CI between 1.39-1.63.DiscussionSmoking is associated with increased poor self-rated health and therefore in the field of prevention health professionals must inform the community more than before about the consequences of smoking.