Quitting cigarette smoking best bet for cardiovascular health

Among cigarette smokers, switching to noncombustible nicotine or tobacco product (NNTP) lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) but quitting altogether confers the greatest risk reduction, a study reports.

The study involved 5,159,538 adult men, among whom 1,457,602 (28.3 percent) were never smokers. All of them underwent health screening examinations during both the first (2014–2015) and second (2018) health screening periods from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database.

Of the men who smoked, 1,541,012 (29.9 percent) used combustible cigarettes (CC) only, 445,885 (8.6 percent) were both CC and NNTP users, 424,601 (8.2 percent) were recent CC quitters without NNTP use, 39,287 (1.0 percent) were recent CC quitters with NNTP use, 1,238,318 (24.0 percent) were long-term (≥5 years) CC quitters without NNTP use, and 12,833 (0.2 percent) were long-term CC quitters with NNTP use.

The risk of CVD according to changes in CC and NNTP use habits was highest among continual CC-only smokers. The risk, relative to exclusive and continual CC smoking, was lower with both CC and NNTP use (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.83, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.79–0.88) and with a switch to NNTP use only (recent CC quitters with NNTP use: aHR, 0.81, 95 percent CI, 0.78–0.84).

After propensity score matching, the highest CVD risk was observed among recent CC quitters with NNTP use versus recent CC quitters without NNTP use (aHR, 1.31, 95 percent CI, 1.01–1.70). Likewise, long-term CC quitters with NNTP use were at higher CVD risk than long-term CC quitters without NNTP use (aHR, 1.70, 95 percent CI, 1.07–2.72).