title: [Health risks of smoking--up to now, clearly underestimated].
abstract: Thanks to its huge portfolio of life reinsurance treaties, Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss Re) can carry out extensive medical statistics studies. In Swiss Re's "Leben-Tarifierungsstudie 2000", a variety of increased mortality risks were investigated over an observation period of 40 years (1956-1996). One of the main questions looked at was the extent to which smoking can increase the mortality risk. The results showed that, to date, estimates of the higher mortality risk posed by smoking have been far too low. In contrast to non-smokers, smokers have a much higher mortality risk. What is more, the risk of smoking in combination with other risk factors such as a high systolic blood pressure or, even more markedly, alcohol abuse has been quite underestimated in the past. Where such risks occur in combination, smokers display a significant extra mortality that needs to be taken into account in individual risk assessment and the rating of risk factors.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Re Germany AG, Unterföhring.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wandl
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fessel
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000401:mortality*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000401:mortality*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology