The impacts of waterpipe (hookah, narghile) -use on quality of life: a special report.
Helmi Ben SaadPublished in: Expert review of respiratory medicine (2020)
Introduction While waterpipe-use induced deficiency and incapacity have already been extensively explored, its impacts on quality of life (QoL) was rarely raised. The main aim of this Special Report was to briefly highlight the key results of the studies raising the effects of waterpipe-use on smokers' QoL. Areas covered SCOPUS was consulted on July 3rd, 2020, using the combination of the following two medical subject headings (MeSH) words: 'Tobacco, Waterpipe' AND 'Quality of Life'. Only English original articles were retained. Merely five studies raised the effects of waterpipe-use on QoL. Studies were performed in Middle East (n = 2), USA (n = 1), Tunisia (n = 1) and 'Egypt, Morocco, Oman and Jordan' (n = 1). Conflicting results were reported related to the effects of waterpipe-use on QoL. While four studies concluded that waterpipe-smokers' have a worse QoL, one study concluded that waterpipe-smokers have a normal QoL. Expert opinion This Special Report is a call to encourage future research to identify the real effects of waterpipe-use on QoL.