RSS Feeds
The Effects of a Smoking Cessation Intervention on 14.5-Year Mortality
The Editors welcome submissions for possible publication in the Letters section. Authors of letters should:
•Include no more than 300 words of text, three authors, and five references
•Type with double-spacing
•Send three copies of the letter, an authors' form signed by all authors, and a cover letter describing any conflicts of interest related to the contents of the letter.
Letters commenting on an Annals article will be considered if they are received within 6 weeks of the time the article was published. Only some of the letters received can be published. Published letters are edited and may be shortened; tables and figures are included only selectively. Authors will be notified that the letter has been received. If the letter is selected for publication, the author will be notified about 3 weeks before the publication date. Unpublished letters cannot be returned.
Annals welcomes electronically submitted letters.
IN RESPONSE:
Dr. Mathew rightly points out that the Lung Health Study smoking cessation program was accompanied by the prescription of inhalers and believes that we may not have given them adequate consideration. He agrees that the content of the inhalers (placebo or bronchodilator) did not make a difference and appears to accept that it was differences in smoking habits that determined the improved survival in the special intervention group. It therefore follows that if the inhalers were important, it was because they made the smoking cessation program more effective. Maybe so, but we are unapologetic about attributing the smoking cessation largely to the program we designed to induce it. Inhalers themselves probably have little to no effect on smoking habits, as evidenced by the fact that smoking rates are about as high in persons with asthma as they are in the general population (1, 2).
Dr. Bombassei is interested in Kaplan–Meier survival curves in Lung Health Study participants who quit smoking compared with those who did not. In our paper, we indicated that mortality was 6.04 per 1000 person-years in sustained quitters, 7.77 per 1000 person-years in intermittent quitters, and 11.09 per 1000 person-years in continuing smokers. We append the appropriate Figure.
![Figure. Four hundred eighty-five of 3322 (14.6%) patients died in the continuing smoker group versus 168 of 1607 (10.5%) in the intermittent quitter group and 78 of 958 (8.1%) in the sustained quitter group ( < 0.001 [log-rank test]).](615.2/F1.small.gif)
Nicholas R. Anthonisen, MD
University of Manitoba; Winnipeg, Manitoba R3A 1R8, Canada
The Editors welcome submissions for possible publication in the Letters section. Authors of letters should:
•Include no more than 300 words of text, three authors, and five references
•Type with double-spacing
•Send three copies of the letter, an authors' form signed by all authors, and a cover letter describing any conflicts of interest related to the contents of the letter.
Letters commenting on an Annals article will be considered if they are received within 6 weeks of the time the article was published. Only some of the letters received can be published. Published letters are edited and may be shortened; tables and figures are included only selectively. Authors will be notified that the letter has been received. If the letter is selected for publication, the author will be notified about 3 weeks before the publication date. Unpublished letters cannot be returned.
Annals welcomes electronically submitted letters.
