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The health effects of cigarette smoking, BMI, physical activity, diet, and alcohol intake as individual factors have been studied extensively, but less is known about their combined influence on long-term mortality. Now, Nurses’ Health Study investigators have evaluated the effects of combinations of these lifestyle factors on all-cause, cardiovascular (CV), and cancer mortality in 77,782 predominantly white, middle-aged women. Participants completed surveys biennially, and information about mortality was obtained during 24 years of follow-up.
One quarter of cancer deaths and one third of CV deaths were attributable to smoking. Obese women (BMI, >30 kg/m2) were almost three times as likely to die of CV causes than were women whose BMIs were …