The temporal pattern of reduction of mortality risk after smoking cessation.

We investigated the excess mortality risks of former smokers according to the number of years since they quit smoking in a cohort of 21,112 men and women evaluated with coronary angiography and included in the Coronary Artery Surgery Study registry. There is a prompt decline in mortality risk within the first year of quitting. Thereafter, former smokers have a sustained, modestly elevated mortality risk for at least 20 years compared with people who never smoked. The pattern is similar in men and women, in 35-54, 55-64, and greater than or equal to 65 age groups, and in subcohorts of those with coronary artery disease and those without coronary artery disease.