Table 1.

Age and age-adjusted characteristics within smoking status as of 2002 (NHS), 2003 (NHS II), or time of death

	Smoking Status

	Never	Former	Current	p
	(n=126,015)	(n=82,441)	(n=21,410)

Mean age (y)^a	56.2	61.5	57.8	<.001
	%	%	%
Age at smoking initiation				<.001
< 15 y		6.7	7.2
15–19 y		54.0	51.8
20–24 y		31.4	32.4
≥ 25 y		7.9	8.6
Change from current to former				<.001
smoker
Never			68.6
Once		85.8	24.0
Twice		11.8	6.2
Three or more times		2.4	1.2
Parental smoking during				<.001
childhood
Neither parent smoked	39.2	28.3	24.2
Mother only smoked	5.5	7.6	7.4
Father only smoked	35.5	37.3	37.8
Both parents smoked	19.8	26.8	30.6
Live alone	10.1	11.8	16.4	<.001
Parous	87.0	87.2	85.2	<.001
Comorbid disease^b	76.6	81.6	80.1	<.001
Tobacco-related comorbid	42.9	50.8	54.8	<.001
disease^c

Note. All values are percents of the population within each smoking status.

Age comparisions included, never vs past, never vs current, and past vs current

Comorbid conditions included presence of: cardiovascular disease (high blood pressure, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, peripheral artery disease or claudication, coronary artery surgery, TIA, stroke), cancer (breast, cervical, uterine, ovarian, colon, rectum, lung, liver, melanoma, pancreas, bladder/kidney, esophageal, leukemia, laryngeal, oral, stomach), respiratory diseases (asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, active TB), other (diabetes mellitus, systemic lupus erythematosis, multiple sclerosis, ALS, cataracts, macular degeneration, gastric or duodenal ulcer), df = 2, chi square = 489.0, P < 0.001

Tobacco-related comorbid conditions included presence of: cardiovascular disease (as described above), cancer (cervical, lung, pancreas, bladder/kidney, esophageal, laryngeal, oral, stomach), respiratory (emphysema, chronic bronchitis) disease (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004).