[Smoking and prevention of cardiovascular diseases in Italy. Research Group of the Cardiovascular Epidemiologic Observatory].
BACKGROUND
Cigarette smoking is one of the most important risk factors for chronic diseases. Major epidemiological studies provide consistent evidence that cardiovascular risk is 3-fold among smokers compared to non-smokers, incidence increases with the number of cigarettes smoked daily and cardiovascular risk is less among subjects who have stopped smoking.


METHODS
To support evidence of a time decreasing trend of smoking habits in Italy, data from two observational studies carried out in different Italian regions, the RIFLE Project (1978-1987), the Cardiovascular Epidemiological Observatory (1998), and data collected from the "Multiscopo" ISTAT Investigation on Italian families (1980-1997) have been analyzed.


RESULTS
During the 1950's, the prevalence of smokers among adult men was about 80%, it decreased to 50% in the 1980's and now is about 30-40%. Contemporarily, the prevalence of smokers among adult women has increased, from 17% in the 1980's to 23% nowadays. The habit is more common in Central-Southern Italy compared to the North and is less frequent among married subjects, and male graduates. Learned women smoke more than those who have not received any education. Men begin smoking at 17-18 years, and this trend seems to have remained stable; on the contrary, women have changed their habits and now start smoking at 17 years compared to 25-30 in previous generations. Almost all smokers would like to stop smoking, more than 60% have tried at least once, but on average have lasted only for about 1 year. Passive smoking exposure varies from 1 hour in Northern Italy to 2 hours in the South.


CONCLUSIONS
Although smoking habits, at least in men, reveal a decreasing trend, about 30-40% of adult men continue to smoke. Preventive intervention, especially focused on the younger generations, could be useful to contrast this attitude at an early stage.
Laboratorio di Epidemiologia e Biostatistica, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma. fulvias@iss.it
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology*