Modelling the number of avoidable new cancer cases in France attributable to alcohol consumption by following official recommendations: a simulation study

Cardiovascular Risk Among Patients Who Smoke: Risk Profiles and Differences by Sex

INTRODUCTION

Smoking is particularly harmful to the cardiovascular system, and smoking-cessation is a key target for cardiovascular prevention. From a large nationwide database on subjects who visited smoking-cessation services, this study assessed the profile and abstinence rate comparing female with male smokers at high cardiovascular risk.

METHODS

This was an observational study from the French smoking-cessation services cohort (French national cohort Consultations de Dépendance Tabagique) between 2001 and 2018. Inclusion criteria were being aged ≥18 years and having ≥1 cardiovascular risk factor. Abstinence was self-reported (stopping cigarettes or other tobacco products use ≥28 consecutive days) and confirmed by exhaled carbon monoxide <10 parts per million. Analysis was conducted in 2021.

RESULTS

Among 36,864 people who smoke, 15,407 (42%) were women. Women were 3 years younger (48 vs 51 years, p<0.001) and more educated (≥high school diploma: 54% vs 45%, p<0.001) than men. The burden of cardiovascular risk factors was slightly lower in women than in men and, for hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, were half as frequent in women as they were in men (16% vs 32%, p<0.001). However, women suffered more often from obesity, respiratory diseases, and anxiety‒depression symptoms (53% vs 39%, p<0.001). Finally, although women were less nicotine dependent, their abstinence rate was slightly lower (52.6% vs 55.2%, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Women who smoked had a high burden of risk factors, especially obesity and elevated rates of lung diseases, and a lower abstinence rate, with more common anxiety‒depression symptoms. Men who smoked had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease, higher nicotine dependence, and coaddictions. These findings highlight the need to strengthen cardiovascular prevention strategies through comprehensive sex-tailored smoking-cessation interventions.

Alcohol Consumption Is a Modifiable Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: Are Women Aware of This Relationship?

AIMS

Despite alcohol consumption being a dose-dependent risk factor for breast cancer, a recent study conducted in the UK found <20% of women attending breast screening programmes were aware of this relationship and proposed proper information campaigns need to be conducted. We aimed to investigate the awareness of this relationship among a related sample of Italian women to evaluate whether similar information campaigns should also be conducted in Italy.

METHODS

The questionnaire used by the UK study was translated into Italian, slightly modified for the Italian context, validated and submitted to a sample of Italian women.

RESULTS

Overall 507 women were interviewed. Among them, 160 were classified as breast cancer screening attenders (SG), 44 as symptomatic breast clinic attenders (CAG) and 303 as non-screening group (NSG). Alcohol was correctly identified as a risk factor for breast cancer by 16.9, 11.4 and 14.9% of participants of SG, CAG and NSG, respectively without differences between the three groups. Despite the methodological differences, the rates of participants who correctly identified alcohol as a risk factor among women attending breast screening programmes were surprisingly similar between the study conducted in UK (15.7%) and the present study (16.9%).

CONCLUSION

The results of the present study confirm the limited awareness of the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of developing breast cancer among women and suggest the urgent need to conduct proper awareness-raising campaigns to counter this in the Italian female population.