MedWire News: Most smokers report a significant reduction in respiratory symptoms after quitting the habit, results of an internet-based survey show.

“Smoking cessation is the most effective way to prevent COPD and to alter its progression, at any stage of the disease,” explains Jean-Francoise Etter from the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

However, he adds: “Some recent reports suggest that, unexpectedly, some respiratory symptoms may increase transiently after smoking cessation, but there is a dearth of short-term data to test this hypothesis.”

Etter therefore studied data from an internet survey of 15,916 smokers on a smoking cessation website in 2003–2009, and from a follow-up survey of 1831 of these smokers conducted 30 days after first survey. In total, 252 initial smokers reported quitting the habit at follow-up.

Analysis revealed that among participants who quit smoking, the proportion of those who reported that they often coughed without a cold decreased from 51.6% at baseline to 15.5% at follow-up, and those who reported that they expectorated when coughing in the morning fell from 47.6% to 19.4%.

Furthermore, the proportion of quitters who reported that they were out of breath after climbing stairs or a quick walk decreased from 75.0% to 48.4%, and the proportion of those who reported that they wheezed fell from 33.7% to 10.3%.

There was no significant change in reported respiratory symptoms in participants who did not quit smoking between the two surveys.

Etter concludes in the European Respiratory Journal: “Respiratory symptoms improved substantially and rapidly after smoking cessation.”

He suggests: “This information can be used to motivate smokers to quit.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2010

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