CHILLIWACK RESPIRATORY SURVEY 1963 .4. EFFECT OF TOBACCO SMOKING ON PREVALENCE OF RESPIRATORY DISEASE

Google Scholar
  • 1 January 1965
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 92  (20) , 1066-+
Abstract
Chronic non-specific respiratory disease was found by a survey at Chilliwack, B.C., to affect 29.3% of men and 18.0% of women between the ages of 25 and 74. The habit of current cigarette smoking was found to be the most important single factor associated with respiratory disease, and was found to be related to changes in simple measures of lung function. Comparisons were made with a population previously studied at Berlin, New Hampshire, USA, in 1961. At Berlin, where pollution by SO2 and dust-fall had been thoroughly documented, the comparable prevalence rates for respiratory disease were 40.0% for men and 21.6% for women. When differences between the 2 populations as to age and number of cigarettes smoked daily were taken into account, the disease rates in these 2 communities were found to be quite similar. The Chilliwack sample did, however, have significantly higher values for the lung function tests.