Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- People who quit smoking were as much as 80 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those who never take up the habit, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.
Smokers shouldn’t use the study as an excuse to keep puffing, the authors said in an article published today in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study adds to previous research showing a link between stopping smoking and developing diabetes. The increased risk could be related to the weight smokers sometimes add when they kick the habit, and doctors should help people who want to quit to manage their weight, said researchers led by Hsin-Chieh Yeh, an assistant professor of general internal medicine and epidemiology at the Baltimore-based university’s medical school.
“The message is, don’t even start to smoke,” Yeh said in a statement. “If you smoke, give it up. That’s the right thing to do. But people have to also watch their weight.”
Yeh and colleagues studied data from almost 11,000 people between the ages of 45 and 64 over a nine-year period. Those who quit smoking three to five years before the study began were 80 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who never smoked, and those who stopped within the first three years of the study starting were 73 percent more likely to get the disease, indicating the risk is highest in the first three years after quitting, the study showed.
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The danger decreased with time. People who stopped six to nine years prior to the study had a 54 percent higher chance of getting diabetes, and those who quit earlier than that were 16 percent more at risk. The risk was 26 percent higher for current smokers.
Among men, those who were 60 years or older, smoked 20 cigarettes or more each day before quitting, and gained more than 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) were 3.4 times more likely to get diabetes than those who never smoked, making them the highest risk group.
For women, the highest risk for developing the disease was found among those who smoked fewer than 20 cigarettes a day before quitting and gained more than 4 kilograms. They were 2.7 times more likely to get diabetes than non-smoking women.
Diabetes prevents people from breaking down sugar in their blood and can lead to complications including heart disease, kidney disease, vision loss and amputation of limbs. While some people have an inherited form of the condition, the majority of cases are linked to obesity.
The study was funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
--Editors: Lars Klemming, Bruce Rule.