• Lucía Díez-Gañán, Pilar Guallar-Castillón, José Ramón Banegas Banegas, Pedro José Lafuente Urdinguio, Esteve Fernández, Jesús González Enríquez, and Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo.
• Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
• Prev Med. 2002 Oct 1; 35 (4): 320325320-5.

BackgroundTo examine the relationship of subjective health with time since smoking cessation and amount and duration of tobacco consumption among male ex-smokers.MethodsPooled analysis of three household interview surveys conducted in 1993 (n = 8,494), 1995 (n = 2,556), and 1997 (n = 2,624) on samples representative of the noninstitutionalized population aged 16 and over in Spain.ResultsAfter controlling for the main confounders, ex-smokers with smoking burden < or =13 pack-years had a lower frequency of suboptimal health (fair, poor, or very poor) than current smokers (OR, 0.59; 95% Cl, 0.38-0.91) during the first year after cessation; thereafter, it reached a value similar to that of never-smokers 11 years or more after cessation. Among those with burden >13 pack-years, frequency of suboptimal health during the first year after cessation was higher than in current smokers (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.00-1.63). Afterwards, it fell progressively, approaching the value of never-smokers 11 years or more after cessation. Frequency of suboptimal health in ex-smokers increased with duration (years) of smoking (P linear trend = 0.045), but did not vary with the number of cigarettes smoked.ConclusionsSuboptimal health declined with time since smoking cessation, to reach the frequency of never-smokers. Longer duration of tobacco consumption is associated with worse subjective health.Copyright 2002 American Health Foundation and Elsevier Science (USA)

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