Early life exposure to cigarette smoking and adult and old-age male mortality: Evidence from linked US full-count census and mortality data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Smoking is a leading cause of premature death across contemporary developed nations, but few longitudinal individual-level studies have examined the long-term health consequences of exposure to smoking.

Objective

We examine the effect of fetal and infant exposure to exogenous variation in smoking, brought about by state-level cigarette taxation, on adulthood and old-age mortality (ages 55-73) among cohorts of boys born in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s.

Methods

We use state-of-the-art methods of record linkage to match 1930 and 1940 US full-count census records to death records, identifying early life exposure to the implementation of state-level cigarette taxes through contemporary sources. We examine a population of 2.4 million boys, estimat

SUBMITTER: Helgertz J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10923319 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature