Study: Women Smokers Die 10 Years Earlier
Cigarette smoking robs women of more than 10 years of life, on average, a long-term study of British women has found. But quitting early greatly reduces that risk â up to 97% for women who quit by age 30. The numbers come from the Million Women Study, which started in the late 1990s. Women were 50 to 65 when the study began. Therefore, they were part of the generation of women most likely to smoke. Smoking for women peaked in the 1960s. Women filled out questionnaires when the study began. They showed that 20% were smokers, 28% ex-smokers and 52% had never smoked. Women answered the same questions 3 and 8 years later. During 12 years of follow-up, about 6% of the women died. Women still smoking 3 years after the study began were 3 times as likely to die as women who never smoked.