Smoking kills, say researchers
2009-04-29 16:00
New York - Hundreds of thousands of deaths every year in the United States could be prevented by tackling cigarette smoking, poor diet, high blood pressure and a sedentary lifestyle, researchers said.
Dr Majid Ezzati, of Harvard University, and his colleagues estimated the toll those and other risk factors by determining how 2005 mortality data would change if each were eliminated.
They found that if no-one in the US smoked, there would have been 467 000 fewer deaths from smoking-related causes, and if everyone had their blood pressure controlled at optimal levels, 395 000 fewer people would have died.
"Targeting a handful of risk factors has a large potential to reduce mortality in the US, substantially more than the currently estimated 18 000 deaths averted annually by providing universal health insurance," Ezzati said.
But he added that even though there are proven ways to help people quit smoking and reduce their blood pressure, declines in both have stagnated or reversed.
Leading killer
The researchers looked at 12 different modifiable risk factors, including overweight and obesity, high salt diets, high blood glucose, high LDL cholesterol, physical inactivity, and low fruit and vegetable intake.
A total of 2.4 million people died in the United States in 2005. Smoking and high blood pressure each accounted for nearly one in five deaths. Cigarettes were the leading killer for men, accounting for 21% of deaths in men.
For women, high blood pressure was the leading cause of death, representing 19% of female mortality.
Overweight and obesity accounted for 216 000 deaths and inactivity contributed to 191 000. Among the dietary risk factors, the most lethal were high salt intake (102 000 deaths), low intake of omega-3 fatty acids (84 000 deaths) and high trans fatty acid consumption (82 000).
Alcohol use was a double edged sword; if everyone in the US drank moderately, the researchers say, 26 000 fewer people would die from heart disease or diabetes, but 90 000 more would die from alcohol-related diseases like cirrhosis and pancreatitis or alcohol-related accidents and violence.
Strategies targeting individuals and entire populations could be helpful in reducing the mortality risk factors identified in the study, the researchers said.
"Combinations of food industry regulation, pricing and better information can also be effective in reducing exposure to dietary salt and trans fatty acids, especially in packaged foods and prepared meals," they added in a report in the journal PloS Medicine.