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Changes in cardiorespiratory symptoms and coronary disease risk indicators over an average 1 1/2-year period were assessed in 9392 persistent cigarette smokers and 3825 persons who quit smoking between two multiphasic checkups. The prevalence of questionnaire-reported chronic cough fell markedly in subjects who quit a one-or-more-pack/day habit (e.g., from 11.2% to 1.8% in white men, p less than 0.001). However, chest pain, shortness of breath and exertional leg pain showed no consistent improvement in quitters compared with persistent smokers. Weight gain was about 2-3 lbs greater in quitters, but changes in blood pressure were small and not consistent across race-sex groups, nor were there consistent differences between persistent smokers and quitters in trends in trends in vital capacity, cholesterol or prevalence of ECG abnormality. Quitting was associated with increase in serum uric acid levels of about 0.2-0.5 mg/dl and relative falls in hemoglobin, leukocyte count and serum glucose levels, all consistent with smoker-nonsmoker differences previously found in cross-sectional studies. Except for the small increases in weight and uric acid levels, quitting smoking did not appear to increase risk of coronary heart disease by other mechanisms.

The ability of a group of 94 psychological questions to discriminate between men in whom cigarette smoking was associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction and men in whom smoking was not so associated remains puzzling. Further analyses, controlling for reported alcohol consumption and for a questionnaire item that might reflect physical activity, failed to alter this finding. This interaction of the questionnaire responses with smoking was not found with two other major coronary risk factors, serum cholesterol and systolic blood pressure. Believing that these observations may provide (a) a clue to how cigarette smoking affects risk of myocardial infarction, or (b) some means of identifying greater or lesser susceptibility to the effects of smoking, we invite other investigators to join in the pursuit of this matter. A list of ten selected yes-or-no questions with strong interaction with smoking is provided to assist others in studying this phenomenon; these are similar to ten items on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

We studied 10-year mortality in relation to baseline alcohol use habits among four groups of 2015 persons, well matched for age, sex, race, and cigarette smoking. Persons reporting daily use of two drinks or fewer fared best; the heaviest drinkers (six or more drinks) had a doubled mortality rate, and users of three to five drinks had a mortality rate, and users of three to five drinks had a mortality rate approximately 50% higher. The nondrinkers had a mortality rate similar to that of users of three to five drinks per day. Cancer, cirrhosis, accidents, and nonmalignant respiratory conditions contributed significantly to the excess mortality of the heavier drinkers; coronary disease mortality was significantly higher among nondrinkers. Smoking intensity was a possible factor in the increased mortality of heavier drinkers, but the data were also compatible with the hypothesis that smoking and drinking are synergistic in the production of certain cancers and nonmalignant chronic respiratory illness. Other traits associated with alcohol use or abstinence are possible contributors to the excess mortality of both heavy drinkers and nondrinkers.

Using information from approximately 100,000 multiphasic check-ups performed in these facilities, we have found an association between alcohol-drinking habits and serum glucose values one hour after an oral challenge with 75 gm. of glucose. There was a positive dose-response relation between reported alcohol intake and serum glucose level over the most common range of alcohol intake. Serum glucose levels were highest in the group who consumed six to eight alcoholic drinks per day. However, among those who said they took nine or more drinks per day, mean serum glucose levels were significantly lower than in the six-to-eight-drink group. These relations persisted when the analysis was controlled for the effects of age, sex, race, adiposity, time since last food intake, time of day, previously known diabetes, and previously known liver disease. A search of the literature failed to uncover a complete explanation for these phenomena.

Among 59,766 persons who had routine health examinations in the years 1978 through 1980, the proportions reporting drinking among self-classified racial groups were: white, 89.5%; Latin, 84.8%; Japanese, 81.9%; black, 79.8%; Chinese, 68.1%; Filipino, 63.9%. Reported use of 3 or more drinks daily was similar in whites, Latins, and blacks but was much lower in the Asian groups. Men of all races reported more drinking than women. A large proportion of drinkers in all race-sex subgroups reported use of small amounts of alcohol, and most nondrinkers reported lifelong abstinence. Wine drinking (2+ days/week) was favored over spirits or beer by whites of both sexes and women of most races; beer use was favored by men of all races except white. All race-sex groups reported a strong alcohol-cigarette smoking association. Comparison with data collected 15 years earlier showed a substantial decline in reported proportions of abstainers and heavier (3+) drinkers as well as apparent narrowing of race-sex differences.

A search was made for predictors of sudden cardiac death (SCD) among 197 men, age 40 to 79, who had multiphasic health checkups and experienced SCD 2 days to 5 1/2 years later (mean 18.1 months). Two age-sex-race-matched control groups, one matched and one unmatched for standard coronary risk factors, have been compared to the cases. In this ambulatory population, SCD occurred largely in persons with prior diagnosed heart disease. Standard coronary risk factors were confirmed as predictors of SCD. Predictors among other laboratory and quantitative tests include chylous serum, uric acid, hemoglobin, leukocyte count, pulse rate, diminished lung volumes, and hearing loss. Some of these had predictive value independent of standard risk factors. Pain tolerance was not related to SCD or to death in, versus out of hospital. Most of these predictors were not related to terminal symptom duration; this suggests a relationship more to the underlying atherosclerotic process than to the terminal fatal mechanism.

Earlier studies of Kaiser-Permanente data have indicated that regular use of alcohol is associated with a reduced risk of major coronary events and that regular use of three or more drinks is associated with an increased prevalence of hypertension. A new study of hospitalizations in relation to alcohol use confirms this disparity in relations between alcohol use and cardiovascular disease and suggests that alcoholic cardiomyopathy has a relatively low incidence. An inverse relation between alcohol use and hospitalizations for cholelithiasis raises the possibility of a common pathogenic mechanism linking alcohol to coronary events and cholelithiasis. Overall risk of cardiovascular disease seems lower among users of two or fewer drinks daily than among either nondrinkers or heavier drinkers.

Studying coronary risk factors, this article concludes that: regular use of alcohol may protect against major coronary events; regular use of three or more drinks daily is a probable risk factor for hypertension; the relations of alcohol use to coronary disease, hypertension, and cardiomyopathy are disparate.

In many studies of diverse populations it has been found that persons drinking relatively large amounts of alcohol tend to have higher blood pressures. In the Kaiser-Permanente study of about 87,000 persons, this alcohol-blood pressure association was not attributable to demographic characteristics, adiposity, reported salt use, smoking, or coffee consumption, nor could it be explained by underreporting of alcohol consumption. If the relationship is a causal one, the pathogenesis is not yet established; direct mechanisms or the effects of withdrawal from alcohol are possible explanations. The Kaiser-Permanente data suggest that about 5% of hypertension in the general population may be due to the consumption of three or more alcoholic drinks per day. Alcohol use shows a positive relation to some sequelae of hypertension but not others; the outstanding exception is coronary heart disease which is negatively related to alcohol intake, probably through different mechanisms. In most studies, cigarette smokers have shown similar or slightly lower blood pressures than non smokers. The degree to which this is due to the thinner body build of smokers, on the average, is not well established; nor is the degree to which a stronger negative relation of smoking to blood pressure might be masked by concomitant alcohol use.

A simple method of making egg counts on fecal specimens is described. It utilizes PVA-preserved stool, yields a permanent stained slide, and is as accurate and reproducible as other methods in common use.

Using questionnaire information provided by 4.385 vasectomized and 13,155 matched, non-vasectomized men, we found no significant differences between them for a large number of symptoms and diseases, including those of the cardiovascular system. After taking into account differences in their martial status, past smoking habits, and physical activity at work, significant statistical associations of vasectomy with joint pain or swelling, back trouble, and a history of kidney or bladder infection persisted. Our data are inconsistent with the occurrence of large increases in the risks of many important diseases in vasectomized humans.

The relationship of thinness to mortality was examined in White adult members of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program who had at least three multiphasic health checkups between 1964 and 1972, with mortality follow-up through 1980. A detailed comparison was performed of the mortality patterns of "thin" (decile 1 of Quetelet's index) and "average" weight (deciles 4 and 5) cohort members who were age 40-79 years and free of illness at the beginning of follow-up. Thin male (relative risk 1.6, 95 per cent confidence limits 1.0, 2.6) and female (R.R. 2.1, 95 per cent C.L. 1.1, 3.9) current cigarette smokers were at increased risk of mortality compared with average weight smokers. Unmeasured differences between thin and average weight smokers with respect to quantity of cigarettes smoked may have contributed to the apparent association of thinness with mortality in smokers. Thinness was not associated with increased mortality in never smokers and ex-smokers (R.R. 1.0 in men and women). As association of long-term weight loss with mortality was present in thin and average weight men and in thin women.

In several studies, persons drinking relatively large amounts of alcohol were found to have higher average blood pressures. The association between alcohol and blood pressure is not explained by adiposity; reported use of salt, coffee, or cigarettes; or by under-reporting of alcohol intake. We examined 12-year follow-up data on two matched groups of 850 hypertensive patients each; one group reported an intake of at least three alcoholic drinks per person per day, and the other group, fewer than three per day or none. Except for a lower rate of hospitalization for coronary disease, for which alcohol may be protective, cardiovascular complications leading to hospitalization or death had similar frequency in the two groups. These preliminary findings suggest that presumed alcohol-induced hypertension is as harmful as other forms of hypertension. A method for distinguishing alcohol-induced from non-alcohol-induced hypertension in drinkers is needed.

In a serach for risk factors for myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death, the mean total vital capacity as measured at multiphasic health checkups was lower in persons who later had a first myocardial infarction than in risk-factor-matched controls (3.17 vs. 3.29 liters, 395 pairs, P less than 0.05) and non-risk-factor-matched controls (3.16 vs. 3.41 liters, 401 pairs, P less than 0.001). Findings were little affected by age and height adjustment and were similar for sudden cardiac death. The first-second vital capacity was also inversely related to later development of these conditions, but the ratio of that measurement to total vital capacity was not. Heavy smoking, productive cough, exertional dyspnea and cardiac enlargement were associated with diminished total capacity. However, exclusion of subjects with these findings did not reduce the predictive value of total vital capacity. Diminished vital capacity deserves continued attention as a possible coronary risk factor. Its relation to subsequent coronary events is not well explained.

Alcohol consumption habits as recorded on health checkup questionnaires by 91,659 white, black, or Oriental men and women were studied. Substantial age, sex, and race differences in alcohol consumption were reported. Generally, men drank more than women, drinking was most prevalent among whites and least prevalent among Orientals, and the highest proportion of drinkers was found in the age decades 20-29 and 30-39 years. Consumption of 3+ drinks per day was most prevalent in the age decades 40-49 and 50-59. The proportion of nondrinkers diminished with increasing educational attainment. Alcohol use showed a strong positive assocaition with cigarette smoking, a weaker positive association with coffee use, and no relation to blood group within race. A complex relation was observed between alcohol use and adiposity, which differed for the various sex-race subgroups. It is concluded that age, sex, race, educational attainment, smoking, and adiposity are potentially significant confounders of studies of alcohol use and health.

We studied blood pressure in relation to known drinking habits of 83,947 men and women of three races (83.5 per cent white). Using health-check-up questionnaire responses, we classified persons as nondrinkers or according to usual daily number of drinks: two or fewer per day, three to five per day, or six or more per day. As compared to nondrinkers blood pressures of men taking two or fewer drinks per day were similar. Women who took two or fewer drinks per day had slightly lower pressures. Men and women who took three or more drinks per day had higher systolic pressures (P less than 10(-24) in white men, and less than 10(-12) in white women), higher diastolic pressures (P less than 10(-24) in white men, and less than 10(-6) in white women), and substantially higher prevalence of pressures greater than or equal to 160/95 mm Hg. The associations of blood pressure and drinking were independent of age, sex, race, smoking, coffee use, former "heavy" drinking, educational attainment and adiposity. The findings strongly suggest that regular use of three or more drinks of alcohol per day is a risk factor for hypertension.

Voided urines of 53,000 white and 9,3000 black cigarette smokers and nonsmokers were studied. Proteinuria was found to be commoner in smokers of both races and sexes. Heavy smokers showed proteinuria more frequently than light smokers. Of eight possible explanatory variables, one, alcohol consumption history, showed some interrelationship in that the smoking status-proteinuria association disappeared among heavy drinkers. Stopping smoking was not associated with a relative decline in proteinuria prevalence. Proteinuria associated with smoking did not appear to be indicative of more serious renal disease. There was a smoker-nonsmoker difference in urine glucose response to oral glucose challenge, apparently explained by higher average 1-hour serum glucose values for smokers, of unknown mechanism but partially explained by differences in alcohol usage. Hematuria, bacteriuria, and high urine acidity tended to be more prevalent in smokers, though these relationships were not consistently significant.

Analysis of questionnaire responses of 70208 persons undergoing multiphasic health checkups showed a greater proportion of cigarette smokers than nonsmokers (excesses averaging 1.6-fold in white men, 1.3-fold in white women) admitting to nine types of chest pain. This excess in smokers was greater in younger individuals, and applied about equally to anginalike and nonanginalike pain. The smoking/chest pain association was not explained by greater alcohol or coffee consumption, diminished pain tolerance, or less reliability among smokers; nor did it appear to be mediated chiefly by excess cough, shortness of breath, coronary disease, or musculoskeletal complaints in smokers. Although smokers averaged more complaints than nonsmokers, chest pain resembled clearly smoking-related symptoms, such as cough, when the number of each subject's complaints was considered. Although more smokers had chest pain no type of pain was unique to smokers, suggesting that the "tobacco angina" concept be discarded or reserved for rare patients with coronary heart disease in whom smoking clearly provokes angina pectoris.