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SMOKING: YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO STOP.

Many patients and doctors believe that modifying smoking and other behaviors that are risk factors for cardiovascular disease is not worth pursuing in older people because it is assumed that the many past years of smoking have produced irreversible damage.

In this study, a group of 1893 men, aged 55 or older, with proven coronary artery disease, were followed for six years or longer. The group that had quit smoking permanently in the year before the study began ("quitters") was compared with the group that had continued to smoke ("smokers"). After adjusting for other risk factors, the relative risk of dying in six years was 1.7 times greater for smokers.

Smoking continues to be a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and death even in older patients who have definite coronary artery disease. This study indicates that the benefits of quitting smoking are great in old patients, just as they are in young patients.

— ALK

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine December 2, 1988

Citation(s):

Hermanson B; Omenn G S; Kronmal R A et al. Beneficial six-year outcome of smoking cessation in older men and women with coronary artery disease. N Engl J Med 1988 Nov 24 319 1365-1369.

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