Life expectancy among Japanese of different smoking status in Japan: NIPPON DATA80.
BACKGROUND
The life expectancy is an important measure for describing health status among population. Several studies from the United States and Europe showed the harm of smoking by describing the life expectancies with different smoking status. No such study is examined in Japan, the country with the world's highest life expectancy irrespective of high smoking rate among men.


METHODS
The abridged life table method was applied to calculate the life expectancies of men and women among different smoking status from age 40 until age 85. Age-specific mortality rates stratified by different smoking status were obtained from follow-up data from random sample in Japanese population (NIPPON DATA80).


RESULTS
Proportion of current smokers was 62.9% in men and 8.8% in women at the baseline survey in 1980. The life expectancies of 40-year-old never smokers, ex-smokers and current smokers were 42.1, 40.4, and 38.6 years in men and 45.6, 45.9, and 43.4 years in women. The life expectancy of 40-year-old men who smoked less than one pack per day was 39.0 and was longer than that of those who smoked one or two packs (38.8) and more than two packs (38.1).


CONCLUSIONS
Life expectancy decreased gradually as the grade of smoking increased in the Japanese population.
Murakami
Yoshitaka
Y
Department of Health Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Japan. ymura@belle.shiga-med.ac.jp
Ueshima
Hirotsugu
H
Okamura
Tomonori
T
Kadowaki
Takashi
T
Hozawa
Atsushi
A
Kita
Yoshikuni
Y
Hayakawa
Takehito
T
Okayama
Akira
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*