Short term effects of cigarette smoking on hospitalisation and associated lost workdays in a young healthy population

Objective-There are relatively few published studies conducted among people of younger ages examining short term outcomes of cigarette smoking, and on ly a small number with outcomes important to employers. The present study w as designed to assess the short term effects of smoking on hospitalisation and lost workdays. Design-Retrospective cohort study. Setting-Military population. Subjects-87 991 men and women serving on active duty in the US Army during 1987 to 1998 who took a health risk appraisal two or more times and were fo llowed for an average of 2.4 years. Main outcome measures-Rate ratios for hospitalisations and lost workdays, a nd fraction of hospitalisations and lost workdays attributable to current s moking (population attributable fraction). Results-Compared with never smokers, men and women who were current smokers had higher short term rates of hospitalisation and lost workdays for a bro ad range of conditions. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) for outcom es not related to injury or pregnancy were 7.5% (men) and 5.0% (women) for hospitalisation, and 14.1% (men) and 3.0% (women) for lost workdays. Eviden ce suggests that current smoking may have been under reported in this cohor t, in which case the true PAFs would be higher than those reported. Conclusions-In this young healthy population, substantial fractions of hosp italisations and lost workdays were attributable to current smoking, partic ularly among men.