Guidance

Developing smoking-attributable fractions (SAFs) for COVID-19

Methodology describing how smoking-attributable fractions (SAFs) for COVID-19 were developed to update indicators of smoking-attributable mortality and hospital admissions in England.

• From: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
• Published: 7 July 2026

Applies to England

Documents

Developing smoking-attributable fractions (SAFs) for COVID-19

HTML

Details

This research report describes the literature review undertaken to establish the relative risk of death or hospital admission from COVID-19 for people who smoke, or used to smoke, compared with those who have never smoked.

It details the methods used to calculate smoking-attributable fractions (SAFs) for COVID-19. These SAFs have been used to update indicators of smoking-attributable mortality and hospital admissions in the July 2026 release of the smoking profile.

Published 7 July 2026