Continuing smokers have reduced lung function

By Robert Cervin, June 10th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

A new report from the Lung Health Study shows that those who continue to smoke can expect reduced lung function as time goes by.

The aim of the Lung Health Study was to see what effect help with smoking cessation and use of a bronchodilator would have on smokers. In the latest report, lung function was measured in 4,517 participants. These had been in three groups - smoking cessation advice and a bronchodilator inhaler, which opens up the tubes in the lungs, advice and placebo inhaler, and a control group receiving usual care.

The study revealed that those who’d managed to quit smoking ran a reduced risk of lung problems, compared to those who continued to smoke. In this study, 16.7 per cent were sustained quitters, while 57.4 per cent were intermittent smokers, and 26.9 per cent had continued to smoke all through the study.

Among the smokers, 18.1 per cent had lung function less than 50 per cent of normal, but this was true of only 3.3 per cent of quitters. Use of the bronchodilator had little impact on lung function. Having lower lung function is considered to be indicative of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a severe lung disorder linked with breathlessness and increasing disability. Clearly the way to cut the risk of COPD is to quit smoking - and stay quit.