Smoking cessation and quality of life outcomes among older adults in the Campbell's Survey on Well-Being

Abstract

Most research regarding the health effects of smoking has focussed on mortality and on relatively young populations. Less is known about the consequences of smoking and the benefits of cessation among older adults. Improvements in quality of life are likely to represent more salient reasons to motivate older adults to stop smoking. Multivariate results from the Campbell's Survey on Well-Being indicate that long-term cessation among older adults yielded odds ratios comparable to never smokers in eight of 13 quality of life outcomes. Conversely, current smokers had elevated risks in 11 of 13 areas. Short-term benefits of smoking cessation were less clear in this subsample, and a number of possible explanations for this finding are explored.