Longitudinal evaluation of the effect of smoking initiation on body weight, blood pressure, and blood biochemistry

ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of smoking initiation on annual changes in body weight, blood pressure, and blood biochemistry.MethodsThis study analyzed the results of annual health examinations from 1991 to 2005 in male Japanese workers. Subjects who started smoking (n = 214) initially responded as non-smokers in a self-administered questionnaire (baseline year) and then answered consistently as smokers for 3 subsequent years. Out of 2547 non-smokers, we selected 1589 controls who had data available for at least four successive years. The time course of physiological and laboratory data was analyzed using a linear mixed model.ResultsA significant temporal decrease from baseline in body mass index (first year, − 0.1 kg/m2), diastolic blood pressure (second year, − 1.5 mm Hg) and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (second year, − 3.5 IU/L) was observed for subjects who started smoking. An opposite pattern was observed in non-smokers. On average, those who started smoking had significantly lower body mass index (first year, − 0.2 kg/m2; second year, − 0.2 kg/m2), systolic blood pressure (second year, − 2.1 mm Hg), diastolic blood pressure (second year, − 2.0 mm Hg), and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (second year, − 4.5 IU/L) than non-smokers.ConclusionIn this study, smoking initiation did not yield clinically significant long-term benefits with respect to physiological or biochemical outcomes. These results are important because few studies have tracked these types of changes longitudinally from initiation through 3 years of follow-up.