Decoding the Smoke–tuberculosis Nexus: A 25-year Bibliometric Analysis (2000–2025)

Background Tuberculosis also known as TB is still relevant in today’s infectious diseases leading to fatality. The common identifying risk factor is smoking, amplifying occurrence and recurrence as well as mortality of TB. Nonetheless the correlation of risk among daily smokers and occasional smokers remains an unanswered question. Objective To Analyze bibliometric and citation studies which describes the global trends on the risk of TB occurrence among the daily smokers vs occasional smokers. Materials and Methods Databases like PubMed and Scopus carried out a systematic search with the keywords like “smoking and tuberculosis”. The inclusions were studies from the year 2000–2025, adults with previous or recent history of TB and mainly exposure to smoking of age (≥ 18 years). Bibliometric R software and Microsoft Excel were main tools for the analysis. Statistical tests included Shapiro’s test for normality and Spearman’s correlation. A significance level of P < 0.05 was used. Results Seventeen final studies were included. After the mid-2000s, the publication trends grew exponentially, concurrent with the international TB and tobacco regulation activities. Asian and African countries were the prime focus of the Outputs, where cohort studies and meta-analyses with high citations unfurled a dose–response effect of smoking intensity on the risk of TB. Conclusion The risk of developing Tuberculosis for daily smokers is very high compared to that of irregular smokers, and therefore there is a compelling necessity to include smoking cessation in TB control policy.