Effect of the Age at Which Smoking Begins on Frequency of Smoking in Adulthood

To the Editor: The age at which a person begins to smoke cigarettes has been found to be related to the total number of years of subsequent smoking^{1 2 3 4}; however, the possible association of this factor with other smoking-related variables has not been examined. We studied the relation between the age at which a person starts smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked per day in adulthood. Since 1969, the American Health Foundation has conducted a hospital-based case–control study to investigate tobacco-related cancers. A standardized questionnaire was administered to patients with cancer and matched control subjects by trained interviewers to.