Swedish snus use is associated with mortality : a pooled analysis of eight prospective studies

• BACKGROUND: The health consequences of the use of Swedish snus, including its relationship with mortality, have not been fully established. We investigated the relationship between snus use and all-cause and cause-specific mortality (death due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer diseases and all other reasons, respectively) in a nationwide collaborative pooling project.METHODS: We followed 169 103 never-smoking men from eight Swedish cohort studies, recruited in 1978-2010. Shared frailty models with random effects at the study level were used in order to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of mortality associated with snus use.RESULTS: Exclusive current snus users had an increased risk of all-cause mortality (aHR 1.28, 95% CI 1.20-1.35), cardiovascular mortality (aHR 1.27, 95% CI 1.15-1.41) and other cause mortality (aHR 1.37, 95% CI 1.24-1.52) compared with never-users of tobacco. The risk of cancer mortality was also increased (aHR 1.12, 95% CI 1.00-1.26). These mortality risks increased with duration of snus use, but not with weekly amount.CONCLUSIONS: Snus use among men is associated with increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, with death from other causes and possibly with increased cancer mortality.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Kardiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems (hsv//eng)

Keyword

All-cause mortality

Swedish snus

cancer mortality

cardiovascular mortality

moist oral snuff

smokeless tobacco

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)