Cigarette smoking plays a major role in the mortality of U.S. women.
The excess risk for death from all causes among current smokers, compared with persons who have never smoked, increases with both the number of years of smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
Among women who smoke, the percentage of deaths attributable to smoking has increased over the past several decades, largely because of increases in the quantity of cigarettes smoked and the duration of smoking.
Cohort studies with follow-up data analyzed in the 1980s show that the annual risk for death from all causes is 80% to 90% greater among women who smoke cigarettes than among women who have never smoked. A woman's annual risk for death more than doubles among continuing smokers, compared with persons who have never smoked, in every age group from 45 through 74 years.
In 1997, approximately 165,000 U.S. women died prematurely from a smoking-related disease. Since 1980, approximately 3 million U.S. women have died prematurely from a smoking-related disease.
U.S. women lost an estimated 2.1 million years of life each year during the 1990s as a result of smoking-related deaths due to neoplastic, cardiovascular, respiratory, and pediatric diseases, as well as from burns caused by cigarettes. For every smoking-attributable death, an average of 14 years of life was lost.
Women who stop smoking greatly reduce their risk of dying prematurely. The relative benefits of smoking cessation are greater when women stop smoking at younger ages, but smoking cessation is beneficial at all ages.
Source: Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General—2001 |
