Impact of smoking on mortality and CV disease substantial

Smokers are approximately twice as likely as non-smokers to die or experience myocardial infarction, stroke or develop diabetes, according to research presented at the EuroPRevent conference in Sweden last week. A study that spanned across three Norwegian countries and thirty years, and included over 54 000 middle-aged men and women, has found that smoking has a ‘tremendous’ impact on mortality among both men and women. From 1974, when the data was collected, to between 2006 and 2008, when a follow-up questionnaire was done, over 13 100 people had died. Forty-five per cent of the “heavy” smoking men (≥20 cigarettes a day) had died, while 18% of the “never” smokers had died (age-adjusted relative mortality risk of heavy versus non-smokers = 2.3). In women, 33% of the heavy smokers had died compared to 13% of the never-smokers (RR 2.7). Of the survivors nearly 1800 men and 700 women reported that they had had a myocardial infarction (MI). The cumulative incidence of MI increased from 10% in never-smoking men to 21% in heavy smoking men and from 4% in never-smoking women to 11% in heavy smoking women. Over 3000 men and nearly 1900 women reported having MI, stroke and/or diabetes mellitus. In men, the cumulative incidence increased from 20% in never-smokers to 36% in heavy smokers (adjusted RR 1.7), while in women it increased from 14% in never-smokers to 24% in heavy smokers (adjusted RR 1.8). “What these results show is the cumulative long-term association between smoking and death and cardiovascular risk,” said presenting author Haakon Meyer. “Around two-thirds of the middle-aged heavy-smoking men and half the heavy-smoking women had died or had a cardiovascular disease within the next 30 years,” he said. “The incidence was much lower in never-smokers and reflects the tremendously adverse effect of smoking on health and longevity. The difference in outcome between the never-smokers and heavy smokers was substantial.”...