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Do Some Seniors Quit Smoking Because They Forget To?
Study finds different
patterns of quitting among older and younger smokers
March 23, 2006 – Senior citizens, who seem to be
pretty successful at quitting the smoking habit, may quit because they
just forget to smoke. Well, that is just one postulation by researchers
who studied adults age 65 and older and found good reasons for the
elderly to quit – those who smoke are twice as likely to die of cancer,
heart disease and other causes than those who never smoked.
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The additional good news is that quitting smoking
can lower your risk of dying from these causes, no matter your age. In
this large scale US study, smokers who quit at age 65 added up to three
and a half years to their lives.
Despite the benefits of quitting at age 60, 70 or
beyond, healthcare providers may be less likely to urge older smokers to
quit. One reason may be that there haven't been many studies looking at
what can motivate older smokers to quit or which older smokers are most
likely to quit.
Other studies that have looked at mostly young
smokers have found that men - those who don't drink alcohol, who smoke
fewer cigarettes daily, who are college educated, or attend church at
least once a week - are more likely to quit than others are.
New Research in the Journal of the American
Geriatrics Society
To find out whether older smokers with the same
characteristics are also more likely to quit, researchers looked at
information from a study of nearly 4,200 adults 65 and older. All had
been interviewed about their health once a year, from 1986 and 1997. The
group included about 600 adults who said they were smokers at the start
of the study. During the yearly interviews, the adults were asked many
questions, including:
★
what their age, race and sex were
★ whether they went
to church at least once a week
★ how long and how
much they smoked
★ whether they
recently quit smoking
★ whether they had
started smoking again after quitting
In the first three years of the study, about 100 of
the 600 older smokers quit smoking, the researchers found. But patterns
of quitting were different among these older adults than among the
younger adults included in other studies.
In this study, as in others, older women were more
likely to quit smoking than were older men. In contrast, other studies
of younger smokers have found that men were more likely to quit than
women.
Only 16% of those seniors who quit early in this
study went back to smoking later in the study. By comparison, far more
younger smokers - up to 45% --began smoking again after quitting, other
studies have found.
The study did not directly assess the smokers'
reasons for quitting, but the authors postulate that factors such as
lack of transportation, poor financial situation and dementia might
contribute to smoking cessation in older smokers.
Regardless of reason, the cessation of smoking may
lower the risk of death, even when it occurs at an advanced age. The
seven-year death rate among non-quitters in the study was 51.6% compared
to only 44% among the quitters (although the difference was not
statistically significant, the authors say).
To help older smokers quit, researchers should do
additional research to learn more about differences in what motivates
younger and older smokers to quit, and develop smoking cessation
strategies tailored to older adults, the researchers conclude.
What Should I Do?
If you smoke, talk to your health care provider
about quitting. Even if you've tried several times to quit but have
started smoking again, it's worth making another attempt. Many people
try to quit by "going cold turkey." But this strategy rarely works. Your
health care provider can recommend treatments, including nicotine
replacement medications (such as the "nicotine patch"), that can make it
easier to quit, once and for all.
Most people who have quit for good tried to quit
several times before they were able to quit for good.
For more information about quitting smoking, visit
http://www.healthinaging.org/public_education/pef/smoking_cessation.php.
The full report titled, "Patterns
and Predictors of Smoking Cessation in an Elderly Cohort," is in the
March 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
(Volume 54, Issue 3).
To read additional patient-friendly summaries of articles in the Journal
of the American Geriatrics Society, please visit
http://www.healthinaging.org/agingintheknow/research.asp.
The report is authored by
Heather E. Whitson, MD; Mitchell T. Heflin, MD; and Bruce M. Burchett,
PhD. Dr. Whitson is currently a fellow in the Division of Geriatrics at
Duke. She is also on the Program for Women in Medicine Committee, the
Internal Medicine Resident Recruitment/Selection Committee, and is a
Tutor at Duke for the Evidence-Based Medicine Conference.
About the American Geriatrics
Society
The American Geriatrics Society is a nationwide, not-for-profit
association of geriatrics health care professionals, research
scientists, and other concerned individuals dedicated to improving the
health, independence and quality of life of all older people. For more
information, visit
http://www.americangeriatrics.org/.
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