Respiratory Symptoms Correlating to Smoking Prevalence: The National Nutrition Survey and the National Life-style Survey in Japan.

Background: Although the fact that smoking habits have adverse effects on health, whether the high proportion of smokers elevates the prevalence of symptoms relating to the smoking in a community is still unknown. Methods: An ecologic study about whole Japan was conducted. Age-adjusted smoking prevalence was calculated using the National Nutrition Survey data from 1986 through 1995 by prefecture and sex. Age-adjusted respiratory symptom prevalence were observed using the National Life-style Survey data in 1995. Correlation among 46 and/or 43 prefectures was examined by sex. Results: There was a negative correlation between smoking prevalence and wheezing prevalence among males (r=-0.301). Among females, positive correlations were observed on the symptoms of nasal obstruction (r=0.355), nasal discharge (r=0.344), sore throat (r=0.481), cough (r=0.350), sputum (r=0.594), wheezing (r=0.451), palpitation (r=0.363), dyspnea (r=0.587), and frontal chest pain (r=0.472). Conclusions: Smoking prevalence was deeply related to respiratory symptoms among females in Japan.