[Elderly ex-smokers and their health status].

UNLABELLED

The risk of numerous diseases development as well as death due to cancer, coronary and pulmonary diseases, is higher among smokers than non-smokers. It is estimated that one in three smokers will die prematurely of complications caused by smoking tobacco. Quitting smoking, even by patients over 65 years old, diminishes the risk of death and chronic diseases considerably as well as increases life expectancy rate.

AIM OF THE STUDY

The research aim was to find out how smoking cessation influences subjective health status.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The research included a random trial of 828 people aged 65 and over from urban population.

RESULTS

87.4% of ex-tobacco smokers, who made up 10.7% of the group, quit smoking before turning 65. The average age of smoking cessation was 45.9+/-15.8 years and the average smoking period was 26.9+/-15.0 years. The health evaluation with the use of visual analog scale (VAS) was better among smokers than ex-smokers (63.4 vs 57.7; p<0.04). Smoking women assessed their health status considerably better than ex-smoking women (66.1 vs 53.1; p<0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

The non-smoking period length did not influence the VAS health status assessment substantially. Only 1/3 of ex-smokers assessed their health status as rather poor or poor, despite the frequent presence of such risk factors as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, obesity and lipid disorder.