Abstract
Background: Smoking and insufficient physical activity are preventable risk factors for non-communicable diseases. There is no safe level of tobacco use and all forms of use are harmful. The current prevalence of insufficient physical activity is also worrying. Physical inactivity is a common part of the current lifestyle, whether at work, at home, or during free time. Despite clear statistical data, it is difficult to determine the extent to which these two risk factors affect the population. 

Material and methods: The sample consisted of a total of 14960 respondents. The share of women as well as men in the group represented approximately 50% and 50% in each of the 4 monitored years. According to age categories, the group consisted of 31% of respondents in the 15-24 age category, 39% of respondents in the 25-64 age category, and 30% of respondents in the 65 and older age category. We processed the obtained data in the statistical software IBM SPSS 28. To determine the relationship between physical activity and smoking, we used the chi-square test in contingency tables. We performed all tests at the significance level a = 0.05. 
Results: In the analysis, we focused on the type and frequency of physical activity. In the age categories of 15-24-year-old respondents, 25-64-year-old respondents, and 65+ year old men, we found that with the decreasing intensity of physical activity, the proportion of smokers increased. In the age category 25-64, 22.3% of men who participated in sports smoked. Of the men who did not play sports, 41.7% smoked. Of the women in the same age category who engaged in sports, 12.8% smoked, and of those who did not engage in sports, a higher proportion, i.e. 25.7%, smoked. Additionally, the less time the respondents of all 3 age categories devoted to exercise, the higher the proportion of smokers was observed. Of the men in the age group of 25-64 years who spent more than 3.5 hours exercising during the week, 24.5% smoked. Of the men who did not engage in exercise, a higher proportion, i.e. 42.3%, smoked. Of the women who spent more than 3.5 hours exercising during the week, 12.9% smoked. Of the women who did not exercise at all, 26.6% smoked. 
Conclusion: The study showed that with the decreasing intensity of physical activity, the proportion of smokers increased. We found that the less time the respondents devoted to exercise, the higher the proportion of smokers. The impact of these two risk factors on health has also been proven by several studies. It is important to focus on interventions aimed at reducing smoking, promoting physical activity as well as generally promoting changes in the unhealthy lifestyle (Tab. 7, Ref. 20). Text in PDF www.lekarsky.herba.sk.
KEY WORDS: smoking, physical inactivity, relationship, population.
Lek Obz 2024, 73 (5): 156-160

Róbert OCHABA 1, Lucia CHROMÍKOVÁ 2

1 Katedra verejného zdravotníctva, Fakulta zdravotníctva a sociálnej práce, Trnavská univerzita v Trnave, vedúca doc. Ing. M. Kačmáriková, PhD., MPH 
2 Úrad verejného zdravotníctva SR, Bratislava, riaditeľka MUDr. Mgr. T. Červeňová, MPH, MHA