Smoking habits as determinant of carotid IMT in gender specific models

Objective: to evaluate the effect of smoking habits on carotid artery intima media thickness (IMT) in gender specific models. Methods: 936 women and 869 men were recruited for the study. Among men there were 358 never-, 298 former- and 213 current-smokers; corresponding figures for women were 755, 79, 102, respectively. Among the 692 former/current smokers, 299 men and 136 women were light-smokers (packyear<30) and 212 men and 45 women were heavy-smokers (packyear≥30). Results: In never smokers gender was a determinant of carotid IMT (0.92±0.27 vs 0.95±0.26; p=0.029). The inclusion into the analysis of former/current smokers strongly reduced the between sexes differences in IMT (p=ns, after data adjustment for confounding variables). In men, IMT was higher in current-smokers, lower in former- and lowest in never-smokers (p=0.018). In women, although a similar trend was observed, the differences between current-, former- and never-smokers did not reach the statistical significance (p=0.26). Similar results were obtained when the population studied was stratified in never-, light- or heavy smokers. Conclusions: Smoking habits reduce the between sexes differences in IMT usually observed when only never-smokers are considered. Funding: Research described in this article was supported in part by Philip Morris USA Inc. and Philip Morris International.