[How often and how much have Polish centenarians smoked?]

The data concerning tobacco smoking in the elderly subjects in Poland are spare and in case of the oldest individuals even unavailable. The aim of the study was to characterize it in polish centenarians. The study is the part of the multicenter centenarian program (PolStu 2001) coordinated by the International Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Warsaw. In this paper we analyzed the information concerning tobacco smoking. In case of the answer YES for the question about smoking, the number of cigarettes smoked during whole life was calculated and expressed in pack-years (1 pack-year = smoking 20 cigarettes daily during 1 year). Among 336 analyzed centenarians 31 declared to have active exposure to tobacco. Men have declared to be smokers much more often than women (21 men 44.7% of all analyzed men and 10 women--3.5% of all women, p < 0.0001). During our analysis only 4 centenarians were still smokers, more often men tahn women (3 men--6.4% and 1 woman--0.3%, p < 0.005). The mean number of pack-years was 28.4 +/- 19.8 (median: 26.0; range: 1.0-90.0) per smoker. The mean number of pack-years was statistically higher in men than in women (33.8 +/- 18.0, median: 30.0, range 8.0-90.0 vs. 16.6 +/- 20.5, median: 10.5, range 1.0-63.0, p < 0.02). In conclusion, tobacco smoking in analyzed centenarians is rare phenomenon. However, almost one of ten centenarians declared to be smoker in the past. Tobacco smoking in our study was gender dependent--almost one of two men declared to be smoker in the past.