Association between Smoking and Mortality: Khon Kaen Cohort Study, Thailand

Abstract

Background: Despite anti-smoking campaigns, smoking prevalence among Thai males aged 30 or older is high, at around 50%. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between smoking and mortality in a rural Thai community. Materials and Methods: Subjects enrolled into the Khon Kaen cohort study between 1990 and 2001 were followed up for their vital status until 16 th March 2012. The death resource was from the Bureau of Policy and Strategy, Ministry of Interior, Thailand. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyse the association between smoking and death, controlling for age, education level and alcohol drinking, and confidence intervals were calculated using the floating risk method. Results: The study recruited 5,962 male subjects, of whom 1,396 died during a median 13.5 years of follow-up. Current smokers were more likely to die than never smokers after controlling for age, education level and alcohol drinking (HR, 95%CI: 1.41, 1.32-1.51), and the excess mortality was greatest for lung cancer (HR, 95%CI: 3.51, 2.65-4.66). However, there was no increased risk with increasing dose of tobacco, and no difference in risk between smokers of yamuan (handrolled cigarettes) and manufactured tobacco. Conclusion: Mortality from cancer, particularly lung cancer, and from all causes combined is dependent on smoking status among men in rural Thailand, but the relative risks are lower than have been reported from studies in high income countries, where the tobacco epidemic is more established.

Score Based Risk Assessment of Lung Cancer and its Evaluation for Bangladeshi People

“…Tobacco use, especially cigarette smoking, has been considered as the highest risk factor for lung cancer in different studies worldwide and our study also tells that smoking belongs to the highest risk factor for male and tobacco leaf intake for female for lung cancer incidents in Bangladeshi people, as in other countries of Asia (Ahmed et al, 2013;Kamsa-Ard et al, 2013;Luqman et al, 2014). Though no female patient was found as smoker in our study but females are prone to expose second hand smoke and indoor air pollution.…”

Numbers of New Cases and Trends of Cancer 1993-2012: Srinagarind Hospital Based Population, Khon Kaen, North-East Thailand

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