C. Frette et al., EFFECT OF ACTIVE AND PASSIVE SMOKING ON VENTILATORY FUNCTION IN ELDERLY MEN AND WOMEN, American journal of epidemiology, 143(8), 1996, pp. 757-765
Although it is well known that pulmonary function declines with age an
d that this decline is accelerated by cigarette smoking, the effects o
f such factors are not well established in elderly individuals. The au
thors examined the effect of active and passive smoking on ventilatory
function assessed by spirometry in 1,397 community-dwelling men and w
omen aged 51-95 years and observed that active smoking affected ventil
atory function into advanced old age. Smokers who quit before age 40 h
ad an age- and height-adjusted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (F
EV(1)) (in liters) that did not differ from that of never smokers in e
ither men (3.06 (standard deviation (SD) = 0.58) vs. 3.06 (SD = 0.60),
p = 0.99) or women (2.09 (SD = 0.51) vs. 2.13 (SD = 0.46), p = 0.51).
In smokers who quit between ages 40 and 60, FEV(1) was lower than tha
t of never smokers and higher than that of current smokers in both men
and women. Male and female smokers who quit after age 60 had a FEV(1)
similar to current smokers. FEV(1) correlated significantly with the
duration since quitting smoking (r = 0.24, p = 0.0001 in men; and r =
0.26, p = 0.0001 in women) and with the duration of smoking (r = -0.30
, p = 0.0001 in both men and women). FEV(1) and forced midexpiratory r
ate in 25-75 seconds were not lower in either male or female nonsmoker
s passively exposed to cigarette smoke at home. These results confirm
the deleterious effect of active smoking and demonstrate a beneficial
effect of quitting smoking before age 40, with an apparent lack of ben
efit on pulmonary function if cessation is delayed to age 60.