REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS Quitting smoking is associated with a substantial reduction in risk of all-cause mortality among patients with CHD .
This 36 % risk reduction appears substantial compared with other secondary preventive therapies such as cholesterol lowering which have received greater attention in recent years .
The risk reduction associated with quitting smoking seems consistent regardless of differences between the studies in terms of index cardiac events , age , sex , country , and time period .
BACKGROUND Although the importance of smoking as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is beyond doubt , the speed and magnitude of risk reduction when a smoker with coronary heart disease quits are still subjects of debate .
OBJECTIVES To estimate the magnitude of risk reduction when a patient with CHD stops smoking .
Smoking and myocardial infarction: secondary prevention.
This prospect i ve study examines the question ' Is it too late to stop smoking cigarettes once you have had a myocardial infa rct ion ? ' One hundred and nineteen cigarette smokers ( 90 men , 29 women ) who survived their first myocardial infa rct ion for one month were followed for five years or until their death if earlier . The age corrected mortality rate of men who continued to smoke cigarettes was 2.2 times the age corrected mortality rate of those who stopped smoking after their infa rct . The women who continued to smoke had 2.4 times the age corrected mortality of those who stopped smoking . The age and sex corrected mortality rates for the combined group of men and women show that those who stopped smoking after their infa rct ion have 55 % of the mortality of those who continued to smoke ( P less than 0.05 ) . These results suggest that smoking is not merely a ' risk factor ' for myocardial infa rct ion but is also a causal factor whose effects can be avoided by both men and women after an initial myocardial infa rct ion
REVIEW ER 'S CONCLUSIONS Quitting smoking is associated with a substantial reduction in risk of all-cause mortality among patients with CHD .
This 36 % risk reduction appears substantial compared with other secondary preventive therapies such as cholesterol lowering which have received greater attention in recent years .
The risk reduction associated with quitting smoking seems consistent regardless of differences between the studies in terms of index cardiac events , age , sex , country , and time period .
BACKGROUND Although the importance of smoking as a risk factor for coronary heart disease is beyond doubt , the speed and magnitude of risk reduction when a smoker with coronary heart disease quits are still subjects of debate .
OBJECTIVES To estimate the magnitude of risk reduction when a patient with CHD stops smoking .