The AGHLS-team published an article on the longitudinal relation between muscle strength and smoking in European Addiction Research:
The longitudinal relation between smoking and muscle strength
Aims: To assess longitudinally whether smoking tobacco is related to muscle strength in healthy adults and to assess the influence of lifestyle covariates on this relation.
Data were obtained from the observational Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study, with four repeated measurements at the ages of 21 (n = 181), 27 (n = 144), 32 (n = 426) and 36 (n = 373) years. Knee muscle strength (KMS) was measured at an angle of 300° per second. Smoking and the covariates physical activity and dietary intake were assessed with a questionnaire. Other covariates included physical fitness and body fat percentage. Cardiopulmonary fitness was assessed with a maximal running test and body fatness with skinfold measurements. Sex-specific longitudinal analyses were carried out using generalized estimating equations.
In men and women, an inverse relationship between smoking tobacco and KMS was found. Smoking 100 g of tobacco a week resulted in a reduction of 2.9% in KMS in men and a reduction of 5.0% in women. This relation existed largely independently of lifestyle covariates.
This study indicates that smoking is inversely related to skeletal muscle strength in healthy adults.
The article can be found here.
