[Mortality attributable to smoking in Spain in 2006]

Tobacco consumption is a worldwide public health problem. Our aim was to estimate the mortality attributable to smoking and its impact on premature mortality in Spain in the year 2006.

Descriptive, cross-sectional study, carried out on the Spanish population aged > or = 35 years in 2006. The number of deaths by age, sex and cause was obtained from the vital statistics of the National Institute of Statistics. The prevalence of smoking by age and sex was obtained from the national health survey. The relative risks of death employed were adjusted by age, sex, educational level, civil status, type of work, consumption of fruit/vegetables and other confounding factors specific to certain diseases. The proportion and number of deaths attributable to tobacco, by sex and age group, were estimated on the basis of the etiological fraction of the study population. Similarly, potential years of life lost (PYLL) were calculated.

In 2006, smoking caused 58,573 deaths (45,028 men; 13,545 women), which accounted for 16.15% of all deaths (23.94% in men; 7.76% in women). By cause, the attributable deaths were distributed in 25,500 malign tumours, 19,117 cardiovascular diseases and 13,956 respiratory diseases. Trachea-bronchial-lung cancer in men and other cardiopathies in women were those that most contributed to that mortality (33.9% and 30.9%). The PYLL were 211,251.8 (176,765.3 in men; 34,486.5 in women).

Tobacco consumption makes a very notable contribution to mortality in Spain. The impact that this habit has on our society is an unacceptable burden.