A large study suggests that people who quit smoking before age 35 have a similar death risk to non-smokers, Science Alert reported. Meanwhile, those older smokers who decided to stop also saw substantial benefits as their risk of cancer death was also reduced.
On the other hand, data also shows that those who started to smoke at an earlier age have a greater likelihood of dying from cancer, especially those who began smoking before age 10 as they have a four times higher risk of cancer mortality when they reach adulthood. Individuals who quit smoking avoided this excess risk, especially if they decided to do so at a younger age.
Large Study Suggests 35 is the Optimal Age to Quit Smoking
The study titled "Association Between Smoking, Smoking Cessation, and Mortality by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex Among US Adults" which was published in JAMA Oncology is one of the largest studies to investigate smoking in the US using nationally representative data.
They used data from the US National Health Interview Survey, which uses questionnaires to monitor the health of Americans, and the database of the country's death records called National Death Index.
The analysis included survey data from more than 550,000 adults ages 25 to 84 who answered the questionnaires between January 1997 and December 2018. The participants were current smokers, former smokers, and never-smokers who smoked less than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.
They found that former smokers who quit between ages 35 to 44 had a 21% higher rate of death from any cause compared to never-smokers. On the other hand, those who quit between ages 45 and 54 had a 47% chance of dying from any cause than never smokers.
The authors wrote in their study that current smokers have been associated with at least twice the all-cause mortality rate of never smoking. They concluded that quitting smoking at younger ages is linked to substantial reductions in relative excess mortality due to smoking, suggesting that age 35 is the optimal age to quit for those who started to smoke at a young age.
Disparities in Smoking Cessation
The study also showed disparities among those who quit smoking. Non-Hispanic white smokers had the highest all-cause mortality rate, which is three times higher than non-smokers. Hispanic and other non-white smokers, had twice higher mortality rates than never-smokers.
The findings may be related to the fact that participants reported smoking fewer cigarettes per day and started smoking at older ages, hence the lower numbers than their white counterparts.
But aside from race, the Truth Initiative organization wrote in an article that quitting disparities also occur in lower income and educational levels, those with mental health conditions, and the LGBT community.
Fewer smokers in the lower income group quit smoking than those with higher income, and they are likely to face barriers to treatments that will help them quit smoking. Also, quit rates for those suffering from psychological distress are only half of the general population. Lastly, LGBT groups have higher tobacco use but lower quit attempt than the general population.
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