Preventive Care and Screening: Tobacco Use: Screening and Cessation Intervention
Quitting smoking is one of the most important actions people can take to improve their health. This is true regardless of their age or how long they have been smoking.
Quitting smoking:
- Improves health status and enhances quality of life.
- Reduces the risk of premature death and can add as much as 10 years to life expectancy.
- Reduces the risk for many adverse health effects, including poor reproductive health outcomes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cancer.
- Benefits people already diagnosed with coronary heart disease or COPD.
- Benefits the health of pregnant women and their fetuses and babies.
- Reduces the financial burden that smoking places on people who smoke, healthcare systems, and society.
While quitting earlier in life yields greater health benefits, quitting smoking is beneficial to health at any age. Even people who have smoked for many years or have smoked heavily will benefit from quitting
Quitting smoking is the single best way to protect family members, coworkers, friends, and others from the health risks associated with breathing secondhand smoke.
Cardiovascular Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Quitting smoking is one of the most important actions people who smoke can take to reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease.
- Reduces the risk of disease and death from cardiovascular disease.
- Reduces markers of inflammation and hypercoagulability.
- Leads to rapid improvement in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels.
- Reduces the development of subclinical atherosclerosis and slows its progression over time.
- Reduces the risk of coronary heart disease with risk falling sharply 1-2 years after cessation and then declining more slowly over the longer term.
- Reduces the risk of disease and death from stroke with risk approaching that of never smokers after cessation.
- Reduces the risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm, with risk reduction increasing with time since cessation.
- May reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation, sudden cardiac death, heart failure, venous thromboembolism, and peripheral arterial disease (PAD).
People already diagnosed with coronary heart disease also benefit from quitting smoking.
Quitting smoking after a diagnosis of coronary heart disease:
- Reduces the risk of premature death.
- Reduces the risk of death from heart disease,
- Reduces the risk of having a first heart attack or another heart attack.
Respiratory Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Quitting smoking is one of the most important actions people who smoke can take to reduce their risk for respiratory diseases.
Quitting smoking:
- Reduces the risk of developing COPD.
- Among those with COPD, slows the progression of COPD and reduces the loss of lung function over time.
- Reduces respiratory symptoms (e.g., cough, sputum production, wheezing).
- Reduces respiratory infections (e.g. bronchitis, pneumonia).
- May improve lung function, reduce symptoms, and improve treatment outcomes among persons with asthma.
Cancer-Related Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Quitting smoking is one of the most important actions people who smoke can take to reduce their risk for cancer.
Quitting smoking reduces the risk of 12 different cancers, including;
- Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
- Bladder
- Cancer of the lung
- Cervix
- Colon and rectum
- Esophagus
- Kidney
- Liver
- Mouth and throat (oral cavity and pharynx)
- Pancreas
- Stomach
- Voice box (larynx)
For cancer survivors, quitting smoking may improve prognosis and reduce risk of premature death.
Reproductive Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Quitting smoking is one of the most important actions women who smoke can take for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. The best time for women to quit smoking is before they try to get pregnant. But quitting at any time during pregnancy can benefit mother and baby’s health.
- Before pregnancy or early in pregnancy reduces the risk for a small-for-gestational-age baby.
- During pregnancy reduces the risk of delivering a low birth weight baby.
- Early in pregnancy eliminates the adverse effects of smoking on fetal growth.
- Before pregnancy or early in pregnancy may reduce the risk of preterm delivery.
Reference (s): https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/how_to_quit/benefits/index.htm