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Smoking is known to aggravate tuberculosis (TB), but such information has been ignored in clinical practice, as it was not thought to be relevant. The aim of this study is to assess the benefits of smoking cessation on TB mortality reduction.

The study attempts to quantify smokers' risks on subsequent TB mortality and the change in such risks after smokers quit smoking. In this prospective cohort study, the TB mortality risks of smokers, never smokers and former smokers were compared, by using the Cox proportional model to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of TB.

The cohort, consisting of 486,341 adults, participated in standard medical screening programs since 1994, including 5,036 with self-reported TB history. Of 15,268 deaths identified as of 2007, 77 were coded as TB.

Smokers …