Page 122 - JSOM Summer 2018

CI, 1.03–1.77) times more likely to receive a disability rating Conclusion
than hospitalized nonsmokers for an anterior cruciate liga-
ment injury. Thus, there is a higher risk of disability among We examined whether the relationship between smoking and
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hospitalized smokers than among hospitalized nonsmokers. injuries meets the criteria for a causal relationship and found
it appears to meet many (but not all) of the criteria for a causal
Another way to address the consistency criterion might be to relationship.
examine trends over time in smoking and injuries. That is, Disclaimer
broad national trends in injuries might be expected to follow The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and
broad national trends in smoking. National trends in cigarette do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Department
smoking were obtained from the National Health and Nutri- of Defense, Department of the Army, US Army Medical De-
tion Examination Survey and national data on injury-related partment or the US government.
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mortality were obtained from National Center for Health
Statistics. Injury-related mortality was plotted with against Author Contributions
93
the self-reported number of cigarettes smoked in the last 5 Both authors are equally responsible for the manuscript.
days (Figure 1) and blood cotinine levels (Figure 2). Blood
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