Chest
Clinical InvestigationsSubclinical Effects of Cigarette Smoking: A Five-Year Follow-Up of Physiologic Comparisons of Healthy Middle-aged Smokers and Nonsmokers
Section snippets
Methods
Candidates for this study were originally drawn from the randomly selected sample of the population of Tucson, AZ, enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study of respiratory health.2 Details of selection of subjects for this study have been described in detail.1 They were of middle age and denied a history of heart trouble, chest surgery, or physician-diagnosed asthma, chronic bronchitis or emphysema. At the time of the second evaluation, the subjects studied ranged in age from 53 to 65 years.
Results
Results were examined from two aspects. First, they were assessed for systematic significant and consistent differences between smokers and nonsmokers at the times of the two studies five years apart. Second, results were examined for changes over time and the changes evaluated for group differences.
Discussion
The objectives of this study were, first, to confirm the effect of cigarette smoking in healthy middle-aged subjects who had not developed overt airflow obstructive disease, and second, to assess any measurable differences in change in function in such smokers compared to nonsmokers after a five-year interval following the same study protocol. Subjects with physician-diagnosed respiratory disease were excluded when initially selected and those selected perceived themselves as healthy. Indeed,
Acknowledgment
The writers would like to express appreciation to Warren E. Collins, Inc for providing equipment used in a part of this study, to R. C. Schroter and R. K. Oxenham of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, for making available their exponential curve-fitting computer program, and to A. Reeves for assistance in manuscript preparation.
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This study was supported by a Specialized Center of Research Grant HL14136 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and by a grant from the Flinn Foundation, Phoenix. Dr. Bloom is recipient of Pulmonary Academic Award HL00838 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Manuscript received June 20; revision accepted August 9