slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
Published: October 26, 2012
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Life expectancy was dramatically improved among participants in Great Britain's Million Women Study who quit smoking compared with continuous smokers, confirming the previously uncertain benefits of smoking cessation in women, researchers said.
Although women who stopped smoking around age 50 remained at significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality compared with never-smokers (relative risk 1.56, 95% CI 1.49 to 1.64), it was much lower than the tripled risk of death seen in current smokers, according to Kirstin Pirie, MSc, of the University of Oxford in England, and colleagues.
"Even cessation at about 50 years of age avoids at least two-thirds of the continuing smoker's excess mortality in later middle age," the researchers wrote online in The Lancet.
Deaths from lung cancer were reduced markedly in quitters as well, irrespective of participants' age when they stopped smoking, Pirie and colleagues reported.
(...)
"We knew this about men," she told MedPage Today. "We knew that, as people age and they continue to smoke, they have a lot of smoking-related diseases, and the earlier that they stop the better. But what this demonstrates is that the smoking-related deaths have been markedly underestimated in women."
(...)
But perhaps the most dramatic findings were on mortality risks in former smokers. Pirie and colleagues stratified the results according to the age at which ex-smokers reported having quit (younger than 25, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, and 45 to 54).
For participants who stopped smoking by their mid-30s, the risk of all-cause mortality was hardly different from that of never-smokers (RR 1.05, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.11). Those quitting at 35 to 44 were at 20% greater risk of death than never-smokers, and those quitting at 45 to 54 were at 56% increased risk.
Lung cancer risk was significantly increased in ex-smokers regardless of the age at quitting -- with relative risks of 1.56 in those stopping before age 25 to 5.91 in participants quitting at 45 to 54, all with minuscule P values -- but still vastly lower than the relative risk of greater than 20 in those still smoking.
"Stopping well before age 40 years would avoid well over 90% of the excess hazard in continuing smokers," Pirie and colleagues wrote.
But, they stressed, "this does not ... mean that it is safe to smoke until age 40 years and then stop."
The 20% excess mortality risk in early quitters is still substantial, they argued, "causing one in six of the deaths among these ex-smokers."
cont at
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Smoking/35605
Published: October 26, 2012
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Life expectancy was dramatically improved among participants in Great Britain's Million Women Study who quit smoking compared with continuous smokers, confirming the previously uncertain benefits of smoking cessation in women, researchers said.
Although women who stopped smoking around age 50 remained at significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality compared with never-smokers (relative risk 1.56, 95% CI 1.49 to 1.64), it was much lower than the tripled risk of death seen in current smokers, according to Kirstin Pirie, MSc, of the University of Oxford in England, and colleagues.
"Even cessation at about 50 years of age avoids at least two-thirds of the continuing smoker's excess mortality in later middle age," the researchers wrote online in The Lancet.
Deaths from lung cancer were reduced markedly in quitters as well, irrespective of participants' age when they stopped smoking, Pirie and colleagues reported.
(...)
"We knew this about men," she told MedPage Today. "We knew that, as people age and they continue to smoke, they have a lot of smoking-related diseases, and the earlier that they stop the better. But what this demonstrates is that the smoking-related deaths have been markedly underestimated in women."
(...)
But perhaps the most dramatic findings were on mortality risks in former smokers. Pirie and colleagues stratified the results according to the age at which ex-smokers reported having quit (younger than 25, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, and 45 to 54).
For participants who stopped smoking by their mid-30s, the risk of all-cause mortality was hardly different from that of never-smokers (RR 1.05, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.11). Those quitting at 35 to 44 were at 20% greater risk of death than never-smokers, and those quitting at 45 to 54 were at 56% increased risk.
Lung cancer risk was significantly increased in ex-smokers regardless of the age at quitting -- with relative risks of 1.56 in those stopping before age 25 to 5.91 in participants quitting at 45 to 54, all with minuscule P values -- but still vastly lower than the relative risk of greater than 20 in those still smoking.
"Stopping well before age 40 years would avoid well over 90% of the excess hazard in continuing smokers," Pirie and colleagues wrote.
But, they stressed, "this does not ... mean that it is safe to smoke until age 40 years and then stop."
The 20% excess mortality risk in early quitters is still substantial, they argued, "causing one in six of the deaths among these ex-smokers."
cont at
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Smoking/35605
