A large study has shown that smokers of cigarettes who quit smoking before 35 years old have comparable death rates to those who never smoked.
The research showed that those who quit smoking later in life still enjoyed substantial health benefits. However, their mortality rates were higher than those who quit before turning 35.
Ex-smokers who quit smoking between the ages 35 to 44 had a 21% higher rate of death due to any cause than “never smokers”. A 47 percent higher rate of all-cause death was seen in those who quit smoking between 45 and 54 than in never smokers.
The study authors concluded that “current smoking was associated with at minimum twice the all-cause death rate among men and women of diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups,” in a report published Monday (October 24th) in the journal. JAMA Network Open.
“Quitting smoking at a young age was associated with substantial reductions of the relative excess death associated with continuing to smoke.”
This is the third large-scale study to suggest that the ideal age to quit smoking is 35, especially for smokers who have just started. John P. PierceIn a letter to a colleague, Professor Emeritus at University of California San Diego’s Department of Family Medicine and Public Health wrote: CommentThe study.
Pierce, who wasn’t involved in the research, wrote that “it has been known for a while that the sooner a smoker quits, it is the better.” It is possible to now be more precise about the age at which a smoker must quit.
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The data used in the new study came from the US National Health Interview Survey (a questionnaire-based survey that monitors the health of the US population) and the National Death Index (a database of death records for the country).
This analysis was based on survey data from over 550,000 adults who answered questionnaires between January 1997 – December 2018, and were aged between 25 – 84 at the time of recruitment.
This included both current and former smokers as well as those who smoked less than 100 cigarettes over their lives.
The National Death Index reported that nearly 75,000 of the study subjects had died by 2019. Current smokers had a significantly higher death rate from all causes than never smokers. Cancer, Heart diseaseAnd lung disease, specifically.
Non-Hispanic white smokers had the highest all-cause death rate. This was three times greater than the rate for never smokers. Hispanic and nonHispanic white smokers had slightly lower mortality rates than never smokers.
This could be because these subjects reported that they smoked fewer cigarettes per week, started smoking at older ages, and were less likely to smoke daily than whites.
Price commented in his commentary, “These results reminds us that reducing smoking intensity [cigarettes per day] should be one goal for tobacco control programs.”
The study authors noted that while current smoking was linked with a higher death risk across all racial/ethnic groups, quitting was associated with significantly reversed risks.
Particularly, people who quit smoking before age 45 saw a reduction in their death risk by as much as 90 percent. Those who quit smoking before age 35 had death rates that were very similar to those of non-smokers.
Similar results were also observed in the study. The mortality rate for people who have quit smoking over time was lower than that of those who never started.
Price stated in his commentary that having an age limit of 35 might be motivating for young people who want to quit smoking.
It is easy for smokers to give up on a quit attempt without a proximal goal. They may think that they don’t need to, or even want to. The study … provides needed data to set a motivating proximate goal of quitting smoking before age 35 years,” he wrote.
But of course, all is not lost after age 35 – as the study suggests, quitting at older ages still reduces one’s risk of death, just not as dramatically.
There are limitations to the research. The research has some limitations. For example, information about subjects’ smoking habits was only available at one time. This means that certain subjects might have stopped smoking or begun smoking after the survey.
The authors warned that “Thus, both true risks of smoking as well as the true benefits of quitting may have been underestimated in this study.”
Nonetheless, the study still suggests that quitting smoking greatly reduces the risk of early death – especially if you do it young.
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This article was first published by Live Science. Learn more Original article here.
