Smoking cessation
Behavioral · Evidence and recent research
Notify me when meaningful evidence changes.
Where things stand
Stopping smoking is an established way to reduce premature death and risks of heart disease, cancer and lung disease. Benefits occur at any age, including for people who have smoked for many years. This is a direct prevention opportunity with health-outcome evidence, although the size and timing of benefit vary with a person’s smoking history and health. Source ↗ Recently: No update dated within the past 30 days is recorded in our collection. This describes our coverage, not a conclusion that the wider research is unchanged.
AI-written overview · not expert-reviewed · Background sources checked Sep 23, 2026 · Recent updates cover the last 30 days of this collection. A new report does not automatically change the evidence assessment.
Background and coverage
CDC: benefits of quitting smoking ↗
- Regulatory status
- Not applicable
- Availability
- Widely available
- Category
- Behavioral
- Human results verified here
- 3
Evidence collection is needs review. 0 approved assessments; 52 assessments awaiting review; 4 published studies with verified results. Safety: not assessed.
Recorded evidence activity (experimental)
A numeric breakdown will be available after baseline review. Safety is not yet assessed.
What changed
Evidence events affecting this intervention
Rapamycin reversed cigarette smoke-induced autophagy impairment in rat lung cells and human cell cultures.
A preclinical study exposed rats to cigarette smoke for 8 weeks and treated human bronchial epithelial cells with cigarette smoke extract to model COPD-related cellular senescence. Rapamycin (an autophagy activator) reversed impaired autophagic flux and cellular senescence markers in both in vivo and in vitro models, while the AhR antagonist CH223191 and ROS scavenger NAC similarly restored autophagy and reduced senescence.
Smoking cessation associated with reversal of epigenetic aging in observational study of 1,911 US adults.
This observational study examined associations between smoking status and DNA methylation-based measures of biological aging in 1,911 US adults aged 50-84 years from NHANES 1999-2002. Former smokers with ≥20 years of cessation showed substantially reduced epigenetic age acceleration (GrimAge2: -12.66 years) approaching levels of never smokers (-13.88 years), with a dose-response pattern where longer cessation duration was associated with greater reversal of aging markers across multiple DNA methylation clocks.
Five low-risk lifestyle factors associated with 14-year life expectancy gain in women, 12-year gain in men, in US cohort study.
This prospective cohort study followed 123,219 US nurses and health professionals for up to 34 years to examine whether five modifiable lifestyle factors—never smoking, healthy weight, regular physical activity, moderate alcohol use, and high-quality diet—were associated with mortality and life expectancy. Adults who maintained all five low-risk factors had substantially lower mortality rates (74% lower all-cause mortality hazard ratio) and lived an average of 12–14 years longer beyond age 50 compared to those with none of these factors. The study combined follow-up data with national health surveys and mortality databases to project life expectancies for the US population.
Healthy lifestyle associated with longer telomeres in severe mental disorders, observational study of 410 patients
This observational study of 410 individuals with schizophrenia spectrum or affective disorders examined whether lifestyle factors were associated with telomere length, a marker of cellular ageing. Participants reporting healthy lifestyles had significantly longer telomeres than those reporting unhealthy lifestyles (Cohen's d = 0.58, p = 0.004), with an apparent dose-response relationship between increasing unhealthy behaviours and shorter telomeres (p = 0.02). The observed difference corresponded to approximately 6 years of biological age.
Assessment history
The 25 most recent recorded changes, including corrections and backfill