A new method for estimating smoking-attributable mortality in high-income countries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cigarette smoking is responsible for a massive loss of life in both developed and developing countries. This article develops an alternative to the Peto-Lopez method for estimating the number or fraction of smoking-attributable deaths in high-income countries.

Methods

We use lung cancer death rates as an indicator of the damage caused by smoking. Using administrative data for the population aged > or =50 years from 20 high-income countries in the period from 1950 to 2006, we estimate a negative binomial regression model that predicts mortality from causes other than lung cancer as a function of lung cancer mortality and other variables. Using this regression model, we estimate smoking-attributable deaths based on the difference between observed death rates from lu

SUBMITTER: Preston SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2915474 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature