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Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on May 30, 2008
Age and Ageing 2008 37(5):521-525; doi:10.1093/ageing/afn121
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Copyright © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.

The impact of executive cognitive functioning on rates of smoking cessation in the San Luis Valley Health and Aging Study

Angela G. Brega1, Jim Grigsby1, Robert Kooken2, Richard F. Hamman3 and Judith Baxter3

1 Department of Medicine, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Aurora, CO 80045-5701, USA
2 Abano Healthcare, Whangarei, New Zealand
3 Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80262, USA

Address correspondence to: Jim Grigsby. Department of Medicine, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Aurora, CO 80045-5701, USA. Tel: 303 724 2415; Fax: 303 724 2530. Email: jim.grigsby{at}uchsc.edu

Cigarette smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of death. Previous research has shown that many common smoking cessation interventions are effective with older smokers; a few interventions have been tailored to this population. To our knowledge, however, no smoking cessation research or interventions targeted at older adults have addressed the influence of cognition on successful smoking cessation. We hypothesized that impairment of executive cognitive functioning (ECF), which is relatively prevalent among older adults, would negatively influence smoking cessation rates among older smokers. The relationship of ECF to smoking cessation was examined in a population-based sample of 1,338 community-dwelling older persons in Colorado's San Luis Valley, 204 of whom were current smokers. As predicted, current ECF did not predict early smoking behaviour, but was a significant predictor of successful smoking cessation. Older persons suffering from executive dysfunction were less likely to have quit smoking than were their cognitively intact counterparts (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.04–1.17, P < 0.01). Among those with normal ECF, 73.7% had quit smoking, compared with 65.1% of participants showing any level of ECF impairment. Limiting the sample to individuals who were active smokers at or after the age of 65, when executive impairment is relatively common, produced similar results. Individuals with better executive functioning were more likely to have quit smoking (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.02–1.23, P = 0.02).

Keywords: executive cognitive functioning, smoking cessation, ageing, San Luis Valley Health and Aging Study, Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale, elderly

Received 30 August 2007; accepted in revised form 26 February 2008.


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