[Tobacco smoking by elderly people according to CINDI WHO research].
The epidemiological research results show that quitting smoking tobacco by elderly people (> or = 65 year old) reduces the risk of cancer both for men and women and there is a substantial cardiovascular system improvement after a one-year-period. From the medical and economic point of view it is purposeful to explore the smoking model of this age group in relation to sociodemographic features as well as analyzing the factors that may motivate them to quit smoking. The research included a random test group of people aged 65 and more, living in Lódź Górna district. The 57.4% turnout to the research enabled to obtain data from 828 people (288 men and 540 women). The respondents were 71.5 +/- 5.1 years old on average. The tool of the research was the interview questionnaire including smoking tobacco related questions. The research was conducted within CINDI WHO Program in 2002. In the big city population the elderly people smoking frequency was 10.8%, where there were 9.5% of regular smokers and 1.3% of occasional smokers. Twice as many men than women at the same age were smoking tobacco (16.6% vs. 7.8%). The majority of regular smokers represent the psychological nicotine dependence type assessed with the Fagerström Test of Nicotine Dependence. 65% of tobacco smokers declare the will to quit smoking and 68% have attempted to quit smoking. The percentage of ex-smokers was close to the percentage of current smokers and amounted to 10.7%. The predominant group of ex-smokers (87%) had stopped smoking before turning 65, however, the rest of the ex-smokers had quit before crossing the old age border.


CONCLUSIONS
The smoking frequency of elderly people living in the city environment is quite high, especially within men. The intensification of actions towards limiting tobacco smoking in this age group may substantially contribute to decreasing the global risk of cardiovascular complications and life quality improvement.
Suwała
Małgorzata
M
Katedra Medycyny Społecznej i Zapobiegawczej Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Lodzi.
Gerstenkorn
Andrzej
A
Kaczmarczyk-Chałas
Krystyna
K
Drygas
Wojciech
W
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014944:World Health Organization