Men’s Smoking Trajectories and Health-Related Quality of Life in the Whole Family: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study

We aimed to investigate the latent smoking classes in men and their association with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of themselves, their wives and offspring.

Using Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS), 1781 men with marital stability and 8-18-year-old offspring were followed for 15 years (1999-2014). Latent class growth modeling (LCGM) was used to identify men's smoking patterns in 1139 men with at least three non-missing measurements of cigarettes per day (CPD); they had 1908 children (8-18 years at baseline). HRQoL and its physical and mental component summaries (PCS and MCS) was measured at the last follow-up using the SF-12v2 questionnaire. The associations of men's smoking classes with HRQoL of the family members were examined using generalized linear model.

LCGM revealed four trajectories for men's smoking patterns; non/rare smokers, decreasing light, persistent moderate smokers, and persistent heavy smokers. Persistent smoking men, regardless of the amount of smoking (light or heavy), had lower scores in general health (ß= -7.80 for moderate and ß= -10.71 for heavy class) but not overall PCS. Al three trajectories of smoker men had poorer overall MCS than non/rare smokers. Living with persistent heavy smoker men was associated with decreased overall MCS in women (ß= -4.20), in particular role emotional (ß= -8.82) and mental health (ß= -9.42). No significant association was detected between fathers' smoking patterns and offspring HRQoL in young adulthood.

Our results show men's heavy and persistent smoking worsens their own and their spouses' HRQoL, mainly in mental health dimensions.