Smoking-attributable loss of life expectancy in Korea

Abstract

The aim of this study is to emphasize importance of accumulated hazards of smoking by providing estimates of smoking-attributable loss of life expectancy. Peto-Lopez’s indirect method was used to calculate smoking-attributable deaths in Korea. Life table functions were calculated as proposed by Korea National Statistical Office. Korean vital statistics are available on-line in KOSIS database, and, as Peto did in his original study, relative risks and lung cancer mortality of never-smokers were acquired from ACS CPS-Ⅱ. Smoking-attributable YLL was 398,592yrs for males and 128,516yrs for females. Ages 60-69 attributed 33.3% of male YLL being the most attributable age group. With respect to causes of death, lung cancer(109,525yrs), vascular diseases(90,882yrs), other medical causes(83,612yrs) attributed mostly for males, and other medical causes(18,419yrs), vascular diseases(17,472yrs), COPD(16,208yrs) for females. At age of 40, life expectancy with no smoking-attributable deaths is 38.95yrs(3.73yrs gained) for male and 42.69yrs(1.00yrs gained) for female. Limits of this study are as follows: first, absolute lung cancer mortality was used as a single indicator of maturity of smoking, and second, we assumed that lung cancer mortality of never smokers are same as in ACS CPS-Ⅱ.