Some grim findings for longtime smokers! It is often said that lighting up takes years off your life, and now a new study shows that smokers who make it to age 70 can expect to lose about four years of life expectancy.
The findings are very important. According to experts, the fact that a smoker could add four years to life by something as straightforward as quitting is worth taking note off.
Research scientist, Dr Jonathan Emberson from the UK said, “Despite recent declines in the numbers of people smoking and tar yields of cigarettes, smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in Europe.”
A 15-year-old study
The focus of the study was to determine the co-relationship between smoking in seniors and mortality risks.
Dr. Jonathan Emberson and Dr. Robert Clark monitored the health and lifestyles of 7000 elderly males, between the age of 66 and 97 from 1997-2012. The subjects were participants of the Whitehall study of civil servants from London.
As a part of the study, the hazard ratios of the impact of cigarette smoking on each subject’s mortality was determined after taking into account various factors like age, employment status and history of cancer or vascular disease.
Findings
During the 15-year study 5,000 deaths were document. It was noted that mortality rate
from age 70 was about 18 years in men who had never regularly smoked, 16 years for men who gave up smoking before age 70 but only about 14 years in men still smoking at age 70.
The analysis revealed 65 percent of the men who never lit up survived from age 70-85 as opposed to 48 percent of the current smokers.
“We have shown that even if a smoker is fortunate enough to survive to age 70 they still lose, on average, about four years of subsequent lifespan compared with men who do not smoke,” Clarke said in a press release. “Quitting is beneficial at any age and it really is never too late to stop.”
Details are found in the recent press release at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
