Just Trying to Quit Smoking can Add Years to Life
Reported February 18, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Smokers assigned to a quit-smoking program, regardless of whether or not they actually quit, had lower death rates than those assigned to usual care, according to a new study.
Researchers for the Lung Health Study evaluated 5,887 middle-aged smokers with mild lung disease who were randomly assigned to either a quit-smoking program (behavior modification and nicotine gum) or usual care. Study participants were followed an average of 14.5 years.
Results show while only 21.7 percent of those in the quit-smoking program had actually quit smoking after five years (compared with 5.7 percent who received the usual care), even the non-quitters in the quit-smoking program had a 15-percent lower death rate than smokers who received usual care.
So why did those in the quit-smoking program who remained smokers still reap some health benefits?
Study author John E. Connett, Ph.D., professor of biostatistcs at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis, says, “People quit, restarted, and quit again. However, quitting had such a statistically large impact on the overall population that even though many people quit and started smoking again, as long as they were smoke free for periods of time, they had better outcomes than those who continued to smoke.”
As expected, those who had quit smoking altogether during the study had death rates that were 46-percent lower than those who continued to smoke.
SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, 2005;142:233-239