Smoking shortens lifespan and has a significant impact on a person’s quality of life in old age, study results suggest.
Results of the 36-year-long Finnish study of 1,658 men born between 1919 and 1934 showed that men who never smoked lived, on average, for ten years longer than men who smoked 20 or more cigarettes each day.
To assess the impact of smoking on quality of life, the researchers assessed the 1,286 men who were still alive at follow-up in 2000 by using the RAND 36-Item Health Survey, which measures health-related quality of life in a number of areas including physical functioning, role limitations caused by health problems, role limitations caused by emotional problems, social functioning, emotional well-being, fatigue/energy, and general health perception. Quality of life was found to deteriorate in line with the number of cigarettes smoked each day. Therefore, men who had never smoked had the best quality of life, whilst heavy smokers had the poorest quality of life. Smoking had the greatest impact upon “physical functioning” and “role limitations caused by health issues”.
The researchers concluded: “Never-smokers lived longer than heavy smokers, and their extra years were of better quality.”
Strandberg Ay, Strandberg TE, Pitkälä K, Salomaa VV, Tilvis RS, Miettinen TA. The Effect of Smoking in Midlife on Health-Related Quality of Life in Old Age: A 26-Year Prospective Study. Arch Intern Med. 2008;168:1968-1974.
