Association between smoking and the risk of acute mountain sickness: a meta-analysis of observational studies

Chen Xu; Hong-Xiang Lu; Yu-Xiao Wang; Yu Chen; Sheng-hong Yang; Yong-Jun Luo

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Association between smoking and the risk of acute mountain sickness: a meta-analysis of observational studies

RESEARCH | Updated：2026-03-12

- Association between smoking and the risk of acute mountain sickness: a meta-analysis of observational studies
- Military Medical Research Vol. 4, Issue 1, Pages: 14-19(2017)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Department of Military Medical Geography, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
  2.Battalion 5 of Cadet Brigade, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
  3.Key Laboratory of High Altitude Environmental Medicine (Ministry of Education), Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
  4.Mountain Sickness Research Institute, 18th Hospital of PLA, Yecheng, Xinjiang 844900, China
- Author bio：
  
  *: ajun-333333@163.com
- Funds：
- DOI：
  CLC：
- Published：2017-03
- Accepted：
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Chen Xu, Hong-Xiang Lu, Yu-Xiao Wang, et al. Association between smoking and the risk of acute mountain sickness: a meta-analysis of observational studies[J]. Military Medical Research, 2017, 4(1): 14-19.
DOI：

Chen Xu, Hong-Xiang Lu, Yu-Xiao Wang, et al. Association between smoking and the risk of acute mountain sickness: a meta-analysis of observational studies[J]. Military Medical Research, 2017, 4(1): 14-19. DOI：

摘要

Abstract

Background:

People rapidly ascending to high altitudes (>2500m) may suffer from acute mountain sickness (AMS). The association between smoking and AMS risk remains unclear. Therefore

we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between smoking and AMS risk.

Methods:

The association between smoking and AMS risk was determined according to predefined criteria established by our team. Meta-analysis was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. We included all relevant studies listed in the PubMed and Embase databases as of September 2015 in this meta-analysis and performed systemic searches using the terms "smoking"

"acute mountain sickness" and "risk factor" . The included studies were required to provide clear explanations regarding their definitions of smoking

the final altitudes reached by their participants and the diagnostic criteria used to diagnose AMS. Odds ratios (

ORs

) were used to evaluate the association between smoking and AMS risk across the studies

and the

statistic was used to test OR heterogeneity

which was considered significant when

0.05. We also computed 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Data extracted from the articles were analyzed with Review Manager 5.3 (Cochrane Collaboration

Oxford

UK).

Results:

We used seven case-control studies including 694 smoking patients and 1986 non-smoking controls to analyze the association between smoking and AMS risk. We observed a significant association between AMS and smoking (

=0.71

95% CI 0.52–0.96

=0.03).

Conclusion:

We determined that smoking may protect against AMS development. However

we do not advise smoking to prevent AMS. More studies are necessary to confirm the role of smoking in AMS risk.

关键词

Keywords

references

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