Tobacco kills approximately 54,000 people a year in Spain. Of this total number of deaths, 27.5% of these deaths (more than 14,000 in absolute numbers) are due to cardiovascular diseases, including diabetes.
These are data from a study echoed by the (SEC) and the This work, recently published in the Spanish Journal of Cardiology, analyzes the mortality attributed to tobacco use in the different autonomous communities with data referring to the year 2017 in the adult population Spanish aged 35 or over.
This is a pioneering study in Spain, since it is the first to estimate the mortality attributed to tobacco use for the same year, in all the autonomous communities, using the same sources of information and a common methodology.
150 deaths of cardiovascular origin per day due to tobacco
As can be seen from the research, 49.7% of the deaths attributed to tobacco use were due to tumors, followed in second place by cardiovascular diseases (27.5%) and, in third place, by respiratory diseases ( 22.7%).
“Tobacco produces approximately 150 deaths a day in Spain. And we once again observe that it is an important cardiovascular risk factor since, by large groups of causes of death, cardiovascular diseases occupy the second place in terms of mortality burden”, asserts the Dr. Monica Perez-Riosone of the authors of the study.
Differences by sex and by Autonomous Community
By gender, tobacco produces more deaths from all causes in men (84.5%). However, regarding cardiovascular mortality, smoking has more impact on women than on men.
The study reflects that, of the total deaths attributed to tobacco use in women, 30.6% are due to cardiovascular causes compared to 25.8% in men. This means that, of every 100 deaths due to tobacco, in women 30 are due to cardiovascular causes while in men there are 25.
Regarding the data by autonomous community, Andalusia (30.3%), the Canary Islands (29.6%) and the Valencian Community (28.2%) are the regions where the burden of cardiovascular mortality attributed to tobacco is higher, compared to to Castilla-La Mancha (21.8%), Catalonia (24.2%) and Cantabria (24.3%).
“The burden of mortality attributed to tobacco use varies between autonomous communities, so carrying out a detailed analysis by region provides relevant information for the implementation of health policies aimed at curbing the impact of smoking.
Likewise, the gender perspective in the analysis of mortality attributed to tobacco has great implications in the design of public health interventions, since men and women have different patterns both in the distribution of the prevalence of consumption and in mortality. ”, assures Dr. Pérez-Ríos.
Objective 2040: reduce smoking to 10%
“Although in recent decades the consumption of tobacco in the population has maintained a downward trend, especially among men, this decline has slowed down more sharply in women, and there is still much to be done,” warns the Dr. Andres Iñiguezpresident of the FEC.
And it is that, as this expert recalls:
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“There is no safe level of tobacco use for cardiovascular disease. Therefore, smokers should try to completely eliminate the consumption of tobacco or related products, since reducing consumption does not significantly reduce cardiovascular risk.
In this context, the Dr. Perez-Villacastinpresident of the SEC, stresses “the importance of implementing the Cardiovascular Health Strategy of the National Health System (ESCAV) which, in the field of smoking, has set the general objective of reducing its prevalence so that it is below the 10% in the year 2040, with a decreasing trend of at least one percentage point every two years”.
Smoking causes 33% of tumors and 22% of cancer deaths
As if all of the above were not enough to decide to quit smoking or never start smoking, the specialists remind us that between 85 and 90% of lung cancer cases can be directly attributed to tobacco.
This cancer is, according to figures from the , the one with the highest incidence among women since 2019 compared to men, in which the data is decreasing. Even so, it is estimated that by the year 2022, 22,316 cases of lung cancer will be detected in men and 8,632 in women.
But we should not only talk about lung cancer.
Tobacco is also responsible for the development of many tumors, including head and neck, esophagogastric, bladder, kidney and pancreas among others.
Thus, calculations made by experts indicate that up to 20% of deaths from cancer in Europe are due to tobacco, and that nearly half of smokers will die from tobacco-related causes.
In addition to being a risk factor for the development of tumors, continuing to smoke impacts the survival of patients with already diagnosed cancer.
In patients with lung cancer, it is associated with treatment-derived complications, reduced quality of life, and reduced survival. P
or all this, not smoking is currently considered the best preventive measure against cancer.