Heavy smokers at graver health risk

Finland, October 14: Further establishing the already well documented fact, smoking deteriorates the quality of life a person leads apart from cutting down on his life expectancy, a Finnish research suggests.

The study led by Dr. Arto Y. Strandberg of the University Of Helsinki, Finland, picked up 1,658 white men born between 1919 and 1934 with similar socioeconomic status.

First medical assessment held in 1974 revealed that all participants were healthy. Their cardiovascular risks and smoking habits were also evaluated at the start of study.

While 372 participants had died during the 26-year-long study, remaining were mailed follow-up questionnaires in 2000 inquiring about their current smoking status, health and quality of life.

Non-smokers lived an average of 10 years longer than those who smoked heavily – more than 20 cigarettes per day, researchers found. They also fared the highest scores on all avenues of health-related-quality-of-life-measures as compared to moderate and heavy smokers.

The survey categories for health-related-quality-of-life-measures included physical functioning, role limitations caused by health problems, role limitations caused by emotional problems, social functioning, emotional well-being, fatigue/energy, and general health perception.

For smokers, two categories were particularly stark: physical functioning and role limitations caused by health issues, with health deteriorating at an increasing rate with the rise in each cigarette consumption per day.

Making matters worse, although many participants had quit smoking between the 26 year follow-up period, the effect of initial smoking status on mortality and the quality of life in old age remained strong, researchers cautioned.

“In all, the results presented here are troubling for those who were smoking more than 20 cigarettes daily 26 years earlier; in spite of the 68.9 percent cessation rate during follow-up, 44.1 percent of the originally heavy smokers had died, and those who survived to the mean age of 73 years had a significantly lower physical health-related quality of life than never-smokers,” the authors wrote.

The results of the study feature in the October 13 issue of JAMAÀâ„s Archives journal À˜Archives of Internal MedicineÀâ„.

Source: http://www.themedguru.com