The 21st century hazards of smoking and benefits of stopping: a prospective study of one million women in the UK

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

There is little if no 'excess mortality' from smoking in women that quit before 30 years of age.

Main

Pirie K, Peto R et al. Lancet. 2013; 381: 133–141.

Oral healthcare workers increasingly facilitate smoking cessation. In this prospective study looking at 1.2 million women (mortality of most were between the ages of 55–74 years), those who smoked at baseline and still smoked at the three-year resurvey, had triple the overall mortality compared with those who never smoked. In addition, even for those who smoked 'fewer than ten cigarettes per day at baseline, 12-year mortality was doubled'. So although 'the absolute hazards of prolonged smoking are substantial, so too are the absolute benefits of cessation.' Not only is 'excess mortality' all but avoided in those who stop smoking before 30 years of age, 90% of 'excess mortality' is also avoided in those that stop before 40 years of age.