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Smoking habits and health-related quality of life in a rural Japanese population

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the association between smoking and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a rural Japanese population.

Methods

A cross-sectional study of data from 823 subjects in Iwaki area of Hirosaki City, Japan. SF-36 scores between non-smokers and smokers were compared. To test the sensitivity of SF-36 scores in detecting health deterioration, effects of having diseases and having deviations from normal thresholds in health check-up were analyzed by adding them into covariates in ANCOVA.

Results

There was no significant difference in SF-36 scores between non-smokers and smokers. Presence of diseases significantly decreased the physical components of SF-36 scores while the results of health check-up had no significant influence on SF-36 scores.

Conclusions

The results suggested the possibility that in Japan, where smoking prevalence is still relatively high, smokers may be less sensitive to sub-clinical deterioration in their own health status than smokers in Western countries that already have experienced the major decline in their smoking rate. The importance of having the smoker become more sensitive to the sub-clinical adverse effects of cigarette smoking should be stressed for the success of smoking control programs.

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Abbreviations

ANCOVA:

Analysis of covariance

BMI:

Body mass index

BP:

Bodily pain

GH:

General health perception

HRQOL:

Health-related quality of life

MCS:

Mental component summary

MH:

Mental health

PCS:

Physical component summary

PF:

Physical functioning

RE:

Role emotional

RP:

Role physical

SF:

Social functioning

VT:

Vitality

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Kazuo Sugawara, former professor at the Department of Hygiene, Hirosaki University School of Medicine for his kind assistance and useful suggestion during the design of this study and the preparation of the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (No. 18200044).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Medicine, Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine, 5, Zaifu-cho, Hirosaki, Aomori, 036-8562, Japan

    Koichi Funahashi, Ippei Takahashi, Kazuma Danjo, Masashi Matsuzaka, Takashi Umeda & Shigeyuki Nakaji

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  1. Koichi Funahashi
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  2. Ippei Takahashi
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  3. Kazuma Danjo
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  4. Masashi Matsuzaka
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  5. Takashi Umeda
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  6. Shigeyuki Nakaji
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Koichi Funahashi.

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Funahashi, K., Takahashi, I., Danjo, K. et al. Smoking habits and health-related quality of life in a rural Japanese population. Qual Life Res 20, 199–204 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9748-8

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