Mortality attributable to tobacco

Today, the number of deaths worldwide caused by the virus is estimated at 8 million per year. tobaccoIn France, this number is just over 75,000 people who died prematurely from their consumption of tobacco, which represents 13% of overall mortality, 19% of male mortality and 7% of female mortality.

Scientists rely on a major body of epidemiological data internationally, and in France in particular, which enables a robust estimate of this mortality. This estimate is based on a method using for each sex and by 5-year age group:

• lung cancer mortality data which provide an indirect indicator of population exposure to tobacco
• mortality data for other tobacco-related causes of death
• the relative risks of death in smokers compared to non-smokers, that is, the ratio of risks in smokers to non-smokers.

These data make it possible to calculate for each cause of death, a fraction attributable to tobacco, which is the proportion of deaths that could have been avoided if people had not smoked.

The following table lists the causes of death for diseases for which tobacco increases the risk:

• the different locations of cancer
• cardiovascular diseases
• respiratory diseases
• infectious diseases

The total number of deaths for a given disease is multiplied by the fraction attributable to tobacco to obtain the number of deaths attributable to tobacco.

The evolution of mortality attributable to tobacco is directly linked to that of consumption with a time lag. Thus, the decline in mortality attributable to smoking among men in France is the direct consequence of the decrease in the percentage of smokers among men since the 1950s. On the other hand, female mortality attributable to tobacco has seen a very sharp increase, rising from 2,700 deaths in 1980 to nearly 20,000 in 2015 due to a much more recent entry of women into smoking. Mortality from lung cancer among women could soon exceed that from breast cancer.

©Tobacco Free Generation

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