@article {Carreras3109, author = {Giulia Carreras and Andrea Martini and Giuseppe Gorini and Laura Carrozzi and Francesco Pistelli and Carlo Zerbino and Franco Falcone and Giovanni Viegi}, title = {Gain in survival due to smoking cessation in the Italian population}, volume = {40}, number = {Suppl 56}, elocation-id = {3109}, year = {2012}, publisher = {European Respiratory Society}, abstract = {Introduction. Smoking is the largest preventable cause of health impairment. An important and challenging task for health professionals is to communicate the health benefits associated with smoking cessation. A simple and effective way could be to compute, for each individual smoker, the number of life years which he/she may gain by quitting smoking. Aim. To estimate gain in life years associated with smoking cessation by using Italian data. Methods. We computed mortality tables [1] based on Italian data, specific for current and former smokers. Subsequently, the survival curves of former and current smokers were compared to estimate the number of life years gained with quitting smoking at various ages [2], by gender and number of cig. smoked per day. Results. As an example, based on the implemented statistical model, men and women smoking 10-19 cig. per day and quitting at age 30, 40, 50, or 60 years, gained about 7, 7, 6, or 5, and 5, 5, 4, or 3 years of life, respectively. The gain in life years was higher for men and women smoking more cig. per day (9 years for \> 20 cig.) and lower for light smokers (2 years for 1-9 cig.) and related to age of quitting. Conclusions. Cessation at any age provides meaningful life gain, especially for heavy smokers. The novelty of this study is to provide estimates of life years gain for Italian smokers who quit according to the number of cig. smoked per day.[1] Woloshin S, et al. The risk of death by age, sex, and smoking status in the United States: putting health risks in context. J Natl Cancer Inst 2008; 100: 845-853. [2] Doll R, et al. Mortality in relation to smoking: 40 years{\textquoteright} observations on male British doctors. BMJ 1994; 309: 901-911.}, issn = {0903-1936}, URL = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/3109}, eprint = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/3109.full.pdf}, journal = {European Respiratory Journal} }