BMJ  2004;328 (26 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7455.0

What happens to doctors who smoke?

Men born between 1900 and 1930 who smoked cigarettes 50 years ago, and who continued to smoke, died on average 10 years younger than lifelong non-smokers. Fifty years after the publication of their original study, which we republish in this issue (p 1529), Doll and colleagues (p 1519) analysed the mortality of 34 439 male British doctors in relation to their smoking habits. They found that more than half of the young doctors in the 1950s who continued to smoke cigarettes were killed by their habit. Among men born in 1920, prolonged smoking tripled age specific mortality, but stopping smoking at age 50 halved the hazard, and stopping at age 30 avoided almost all of it.

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