Smoking, dietary calcium and vitamin D deficiency in women: a population-based study

Abstract

Objective: To determine differences in dietary calcium and vitamin D intakes between female never, former and current smokers.

Design: Population-based survey using a validated food frequency questionnaire.

Setting: The Bus Santé 2000, epidemiologic observatory of Geneva, Switzerland.

Subjects: 2319 women resident in Geneva, Switzerland between 1993 and 1997.

Results: Daily calcium intake was 798 mg among current heavy smokers (>/=20 cigarettes/day), 882 mg among current moderate smokers (1-19 cigarettes/day) and 945 mg among never smokers (P=0.0001). There was a difference of almost 50 mg/day in median calcium intake from cheese (P=0.04), which corresponded to about one-third of the total difference in calcium intake between heavy smokers and never smokers. Of the current heavy smokers, 21% did not eat yogurt compared to 10% of never smokers (P=0.001). Among yogurt eaters, heavy smokers consumed 90 mg/day of calcium from yogurt vs 115 mg/day in never smokers (P=0.003). Smokers ate more butter and cream (P=0.02) or milk (P=0.06) than never smokers, but these were minor sources of calcium. Fish was the main cause of higher intake of vitamin D in never smokers (0.81 microg/day) compared with heavy smokers (0.53 microg/day) and moderate smokers (0.70 microg/day). The diet of ex-smokers after 5 y or more of smoking cessation tended to resemble that of never smokers for calcium (about 900 mg/day) and vitamin D (about 2.55 microg/day).

Conclusion: Female current smokers have lower dietary intakes of calcium and vitamin D than never smokers.

Sponsorship: This study was funded by the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research (grants 32.31.326.91, 32-37986.93 and 32-49847.96).