• Posted October 10, 2024

Seniors, You're Never Too Old to Quit Smoking, Study Finds

It’s never too late for a person to quit smoking, even if they’re elderly, a new study finds.

Dropping the smokes even as late as 75 can meaningfully increase a person’s life expectancy, researchers reported recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Seniors age 75 will lose on average more than four years of life if they keep smoking, compared to people who never smoked, researchers found.

On the other hand, a 75-year-old smoker who quits has a 14% chance of gaining at least one extra year of life, and a 65-year-old smoker a 23% chance.

And about 8% of those who quit at age 75 gain at least four years of life compared to those who keep smoking, researchers found.

Quitting smoking is the single best thing anyone at any age can do to increase their life expectancy, researchers concluded.

"We have seen a remarkable decline in young adult smoking over the past decade. However, rates among older adults who smoke have remained stagnant and, to our knowledge, no research had established the benefits for them of quitting,” lead researcher Thuy Le, an assistant research scientist with the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

“We wanted to show that stopping smoking is beneficial at any age and provide an incentive for older people who smoke to quit,” Le added in a university news release.

For the study, researchers used data from health surveys, census records and U.S. death registers to construct life expectancy tables for three types of people -- those who never smoked, still smoke or quit smoking.

Results showed that quitting earlier in life kept people from losing additional years of expected life.

For example, people who keep smoking from age 35 will lose an average nine years of extra life, while those keep smoking past 45 will lose an average seven years of life.

But even into old age, quitting can help people avoid losing extra years of life, results show.

Continuing to smoke after age 65 will cost a person about six years of life. Quitting at that age will add at least eight years of life for nearly 10% of people, researchers said.

“The cessation benefit is not limited to young and middle-aged adults who smoke; this study demonstrates its applicability to seniors as well,” said researcher Kenneth Warner, dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

“While the gains from quitting at older ages may seem low in absolute values, they represent a large proportion of an individual's remaining life expectancy," Warner added.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the health effects of smoking.

SOURCE: Elsevier, news release, Oct. 8, 2024