The Relationship between the White Blood Cell Count and Cigarette Smoking among Japanese Males

Abstract

The Relationship between the White Blood Cell Count and Cigarette Smoking among Japanese Males: Yoshito MOMOSE, et al. Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University—The cross-sectional data for 1, 155 men aged 20-59 years obtained during annual health checkups in 1993 were used to study factors related to the WBC count. Current smokers have a WBC count averaging 10-15 percent higher than those of both ex-smokers and those who never smoked. The current number of cigarettes smoked per day and the Brinkman index were also positively related to the WBC count after adjusting for such risk factors as the BMI, diastolic blood pressure, and HDL-C level by means of a covariance analysis. We thus confirmed that an elevated WBC count is independently associated with the amount and duration of cigarette smoking among Japanese males.