Smoking and Older Adults: Health Risks and Mortality

According to the School of Medicine of University of California, San Diego, the incidence of mortality and disease due to cigarette smoking increases rapidly with age. Unlike young smokers who are more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases from smoking, lung cancer is more common among the older people.

Death Rate

• Every year, about 400,000 people die from smoking. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 70 percent of these people are above the age of 60.

Lung Diseases

• Smoking is a major cause of heart diseases for people of all age groups; however, above the age of 60 years, smoking poses a great threat of lung cancer and other lung diseases as well. According to Cancer.org, almost nine out of 10 deaths from lung cancer are caused by smoking.

Considerations

• The benefits of quitting smoking are rather slower to take effect among older people than young individuals. However, quitting is still the best strategy to reduce the effects of diseases caused by smoking.

Other Effects

• Long-term effects of smoking on older people include heart diseases, bronchitis and stroke. Smoking also interferes with the functioning of the immune system and consequently, makes the individual more vulnerable to disease. Men who smoke have a high risk of erectile dysfunction, especially in old age.

Warning

• Smokers usually die younger than nonsmokers. Smoking shortens the lives of men by 13.2 years and women by 14.5 years, according to Cancer.org. They are more likely to die between the ages of 35 and 69.