Young healthy people who smoke had substantially more lost work days than their non-smoking colleagues, finds research in Tobacco Control. Men smokers had more lost work days than women smokers, the study showed.
Almost 88,000 men and women on active duty in the US Army were monitored for over two years. The average age of those assessed was 28½, and the sample included men and women of diverse ethnicity, race, and army occupation.
The smokers had more lost work days and were admitted to hospital more frequently than their non-smoking colleagues. Among the men, smoking increased the risk of being admitted to hospital for causes other than injury by almost a third; in women the equivalent increase in risk was 25 per cent. The research showed that former smokers also had higher admission rates than non-smokers. Current smoking could be directly implicated in 7.5 per cent of hospital admissions in men and 5 per cent of those in women.
The risk of lost work days, excluding injury and pregnancy, was increased by 60 per cent among men who smoked and by 15 per cent among women smokers. Over 14 per cent of lost workdays among men and 3 per cent of those among women were directly linked to smoking. The rate of lost work days as a result of injury was also higher among smokers, at 7 per cent among men and 54 per cent among women.
The authors point out that most employment research on smokers has focused on older populations, but that this study shows the adverse effects among young smokers, with the consequent cost implications for employers. "It is remarkable that a single risk factor could account for such a large proportion of hospitalisations and lost workdays, particularly over such a short period of observation," they conclude.
Contact: Major Anthony Robbins, Office for Prevention and Health Services Assessment, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, USA. Tel: 00 1 210 536 6509; Fax: 001 210 536 6290 Email: anthony.robbins@ophsa.brooks.af.mil Or Professor Simon Chapman, Editor, Tobacco Control, University of Sydney, Australia: Tel: 00 61 2 9351 5203; Email: simonc@pub.health.usyd.edu.au
[Short term effects of cigarette smoking on hospitalisation and associated lost workdays in a young healthy population] 2000;9:389-96
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Journal
Tobacco Control