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by Robert MacKay, Monday, 26 November 2012 | Categories: Smoking

Most smokers are well aware of the many effects that smoking brings with it; these usually extend to respiratory and cardiovascular areas. However, a recent study from Kings College London now claims that smoking may even affect cognitive function such as memory, learning and reasoning.

The study, which was published in Journal of Age and Ageing, was a population based cohort study and included a total of 8850 participants over the age of 50. The participants were classified as either non-smokers or current smokers (with ex-smokers being categorised as non-smokers). The researchers carried out several surveys regarding health and lifestyle. In addition to that, the participants took part in several cognitive tests where it was required that they learn new words and name as many animals as they could think of in one minute. The participants were followed up four years and eight years since the initial testing and they provided the same data and did the same tests, which were then compared. The findings indicated that there was a consistent relationship between smoking status and poorer performance in the cognitive tests. This led the researchers to suggest that smoking may be a risk factor for affecting cognitive function in later life.

This study benefits from the substantial sample size and the extensive questionnaires that provided information on many aspects that could affect cognitive performance. This included highest educational attainment, level of physical exercise, depressive symptoms and age. Although the psychological tests may appear rather rudimentary, they do in fact have a history of providing reliable and valid results. What is interesting is that the cognitive decline reached statistically significant levels, as it could be argued that participants should have performed better in later tests as a result of learning what is expected of them.

However, there are several aspects of the study that make it challenging to directly apply the results to smoking as a key factor on its own. Firstly, it is unfortunate that smoking status was not more nuanced to separate the groups into ex-smokers, smokers and non-smokers and individuals extensively exposed to second hand smoking. It also appears that amount of smoking was not recorded, which would have been useful to consider dose-response relationships between smoking and cognitive decline. The study had sound theoretical basis as the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive decline appears to have been proposed in the past and the relationship between smoking and cardiovascular health is not novel within research to date. However, this study cannot pinpoint if and how these may interact, or whether there is an alternative explanation that would turn both cardiovascular risk factors and smoking into mediators.

Nevertheless, the study adds weight to previous findings from limited studies that have considered the potential relationships between smoking and cognitive function. It does have a place in research for this particular demographic group and may be valuable in further considering how smoking might affect the mind.

We are not surprised that smoking affects both mind and body, as we often mention how complex the process of smoking cessation can be. But what fascinates us about this study is that smoking has been applied to specific cognitive functions that are valuable in an everyday life. Although the findings need to be interpreted with caution, it is still worth mentioning that smoking is a risk factor that individuals can affect and that we encourage cessation sooner rather than later.





 
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