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Introduction: at present, smoking appears as one of the main health problems worldwide. Objective: to characterize the people who smoke psycho-socially in La Palma municipality during 2017. Method: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in the health area belonging to Pedro Borras Astorga University Polyclinic; the target group consisted of 6625 patients dispensed as smokers, the sample was chosen by simple random sampling consisting of 863 smokers who met the inclusion criteria. Theoretical, empirical and descriptive statistics which included absolute and relative frequency were applied. Results: 59,7 % of smokers were male, 71,3 % belonged to the age group of 25 to 59 years old, 57,3% only completed elementary school, the marital status of divorced-separated prevailed with 40,0 %; there was a 53,8 % average dependence on nicotine addiction, 91,0 % was motivated to smoke to reduce stress and 75,7 % of smokers presented the risk factors of living into dysfunctional families. Conclusions: smoking is a health problem, it influences on the morbidity and mortality rates of the population of La Palma municipality, consequently prevention and control actions should be taken to diminish the risk factors, to achieve quality of life in the population exposed to this risky addiction.

Introduction: at present, smoking appears as one of the main health problems worldwide. Objective: to characterize the people who smoke psycho-socially in La Palma municipality during 2017. Method: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in the health area belonging to Pedro Borras Astorga University Polyclinic; the target group consisted of 6625 patients dispensed as smokers, the sample was chosen by simple random sampling consisting of 863 smokers who met the inclusion criteria. Theoretical, empirical and descriptive statistics which included absolute and relative frequency were applied. Results: 59,7 % of smokers were male, 71,3 % belonged to the age group of 25 to 59 years old, 57,3% only completed elementary school, the marital status of divorced-separated prevailed with 40,0 %; there was a 53,8 % average dependence on nicotine addiction, 91,0 % was motivated to smoke to reduce stress and 75,7 % of smokers presented the risk factors of living into dysfunctional families. Conclusions: smoking is a health problem, it influences on the morbidity and mortality rates of the population of La Palma municipality, consequently prevention and control actions should be taken to diminish the risk factors, to achieve quality of life in the population exposed to this risky addiction.