What Is the Best Age or Right Time to Stop Smoking?

According to a new study, stopping smoking before age 35 can completely eliminate the mortality risk associated with smoking. The researchers also highlighted the many benefits of stopping after age 35.

Stopping Smoking Before 45

The reduction in excess mortality risk according to age at quitting was:

• 90% for people who quit before age 45
• 66% for those who quit at ages 45-64

People who start smoking young often feel hopeless about stopping. Diseases that may emerge in the distant future also make it difficult for experts to motivate younger people not to smoke. Without a near-term health goal, smokers may abandon attempts to quit.

Compared with people defined as “never smokers”, who had smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, current smokers were twice as likely to die from any cause during the study.

JAMA Network Open published the study using data from the US-CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), collected between 1997 and 2018, covering 551,388 Americans. Data on specific causes of death were also collected through the end of 2019.

The results reflected earlier findings while also examining whether demographic factors, including race and sex, affected the benefits of quitting. The researchers found similar reductions in mortality risk across demographic groups: stopping smoking benefited everyone.

The study authors stated:

“Among long-term smokers of every racial and ethnic group, regardless of sex, stopping smoking was associated with a reduction of approximately 80% in the excess mortality associated with continued smoking. These associations were generally consistent for deaths from cancer, cardiovascular disease and lower respiratory disease.”

The findings are also important for guiding people trying to stop. Although smoking is declining nationally, the decline differs across age, race and sex groups.

Conclusion

Tracking the relationship between smoking and mortality by race, ethnicity and sex is essential for understanding how the worldwide tobacco epidemic continues to evolve and who is most affected by changes. Although smoking has declined over the past decade in many Western countries and in our country, progress has not been equal across demographic groups. Tobacco-containing and tobacco-free electronic cigarettes pose a major threat to young people; brains exposed to nicotine early develop stronger addiction. Moreover, apparent reductions in cigarette use do not necessarily mean similarly positive trends for all tobacco products. Tobacco consumption is changing: hookahs and electronic cigarettes, with or without tobacco, are spreading despite their sale being prohibited in our country. This variety and the mistaken belief that these products are less harmful help the tobacco epidemic spread insidiously.