Smoking and health

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Canada, accounting for some 30 000 deaths annually. This enormous health cost to Canadians has led the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) to promote initiatives regarding smoking prevention programs in schools, legislation to prevent smoking in government buildings and controls on smoking in private buildings, particularly places of work. The CMA recommends the prohibition of all forms of tobacco advertising/promotion in Canada, including advertising in conjunction with athletic events. The CMA also supports the taxation of tobacco products at a level to discourage their purchase, with revenue earmarked for health budgets, and the association is encouraging the federal government to develop alternative crop incentives for tobacco farmers. The norm of nonsmoking is a social attitude the CMA is working toward developing in all Canadians.     

Smoking,health and ageing

On March 19, 2008 a Symposium on Pathophysiology of Ageing and Age-Related diseases was held in Palermo, Italy. Here, the lecture of V. Nicita-Mauro on Smoking, health and ageing is summarized. Smoking represents an important ageing accelerator, both directly by triggering an inflammatory responses, and indirectly by favoring the occurrence of several diseases where smoking is a recognized risk factor. Hence, non-smokers can delay the appearance of diseases and of ageing process, so attaining longevity.     

Smoking and health care patterns among pregnant women

A population-based hospital survey of 3628 women in the postpartum period was conducted in the Ottawa-Carleton region in 1983 to determine the prevalence of smoking before and during pregnancy, the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of women who smoke during pregnancy and the use of health care services by these women. Of the 3628 women 91% completed a full-length questionnaire and 4% completed a shorter questionnaire. Before pregnancy 37.4% of the women smoked cigarettes. Overall, 61.1% of the smokers changed their smoking habit: 31.1% stopped, 28.1% decreased the amount smoked and 2.0% increased the amount smoked. Two thirds of the women who stopped smoking did so as soon as they realized they were pregnant. Over 50% of teenagers, single women, women living common-law and women with less than a grade 11 education smoked after the 3rd month of pregnancy. The physician is in an ideal position to identify as soon as possible pregnant women who smoke and to initiate a health education program. Only a few women who smoked during pregnancy attended early prenatal classes. Physicians and class organizers must work to improve this situation if such classes are to have an impact on smoking during pregnancy.     

Smoking and other health factors in patients with head and neck cancer

BackgroundInformation on smoking and other health factors in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients throughout treatment, follow-up and survivorship is limited. This study explores patterns of multiple health factors during radiotherapy (RT) and naturalistic long-term follow-up in a convenience sample of patients with HNC.MethodsSmoking, alcohol use and depression were measured at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks post RT for a sub-group of 99 patients who participated in a randomised controlled trial and completed long-term follow-up. These factors plus healthy eating, physical activity and fatigue are also reported from the long-term follow-up component. Smoking was measured by self-report and biochemically, whilst all other variables were by self-report. Where variables were assessed at multiple time points logistic mixed effects regression models determined within-person changes over time.ResultsThere were important discrepancies between self-reported (4–7%) and biochemically verified (13–29%) rates of smoking. Rates of smoking and hazardous alcohol intake were significantly increased at follow-up compared to baseline. Depression rates were observed to be higher at end of RT compared to baseline. At long-term follow-up, fatigue was common and co-occurred with suboptimal healthy eating and hazardous alcohol use.ConclusionClinically important levels of smoking and alcohol consumption post RT in this sample suggest possible targets for intervention beyond treatment into long-term follow-up of patients.     

Smoking and Health

Although cigarette smoking is the number one public health problem in the United States, physicians have failed to take the lead either in convincing youngsters not to begin smoking or in aiding adults to quit smoking. To be most effective and convincing in combating the smoking epidemic, practicing physicians must have the same basic fund of knowledge about the short- and long-term consequences of smoking as they do about other commonly encountered medical problems. By acting on such knowledge and adopting a definite set of attitudes and activities in their offices and with patients, physicians can make a significant contribution to their patients and to the entire community in which they practice.