Smoking and coronary heart disease in the elderly

This paper is concerned with the question of whether elderly people (ages 65-84) are more likely to develop coronary heart disease (CHD) if they continue or stop cigarette smoking. Age-standardized CHD rates and mortality ratios have been computed from data available in four major prospective cohort investigations of smoking and health. The data examined gave consistent results. For elderly men, there were no appreciable excess risks of CHD mortality or morbidity among cigarette smokers compared to ex-cigarette smokers and non-cigarette smokers. For elderly women, the CHD rates seemed lower in continuing cigarette smokers than in ex-cigarette smokers. These results obtained from cohort data are concordant with previous analyses of secular data. Among elderly people, the risk of CHD is essentially the same with persistence of cigarette smoking than with its cessation.