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Non-smokers smarter than smokers

Cigarette smokers have lower intelligence quotient (IQ) than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ.

Non-smokers smarter than smokers

Cigarette smokers have lower intelligence quotient (IQ) than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ.

Although previous studies indicate that people with lower IQ scores are more likely to become cigarette smokers, no systematic study has been done on the IQ scores of siblings who differ in this habit or of adolescents who began smoking between ages 18–21 years. While there is evidence for a link between smoking and lower IQ, many studies have relied on intelligence tests given in childhood, and have also included people with mental and behavioral problems, who are both more likely to smoke and more likely to have low IQs.

To better understand the smoking-IQ relationship, the researchers looked at 20,211 men aged 18-year-old, recruited into the Israeli military. The group did not include anyone with major mental health problems, because these individuals are disqualified from military service. Overall, 28 percent of the study participants smoked at least one cigarette a day, around 3 percent said they were ex-smokers, and 68 percent had never smoked. Each year a random sample of Israeli military recruits complete a smoking questionnaire. Cognitive functioning was  assessed by the military using standardized tests equivalent to IQ.

The smokers had significantly lower intelligence test scores than non-smokers, and this remained true even after the researchers accounted for socioeconomic status as measured by how many years of formal education a recruit's father had completed.

The average IQ for non-smokers was about 101, while it was 94 for men who had started smoking before entering the military. IQ steadily dropped as the number of cigarettes smoked increased, from 98 for people who smoked one to five cigarettes daily to 90 for those who smoked more than a pack a day. IQ scores from 84 to 116 are considered to indicate average intelligence.

The participants were n't allowed to smoke while intelligence tests were  administered, so it's possible that withdrawal symptoms might have affected smokers' scores. To address this issue, the researchers also looked at IQ scores for men who were non-smokers when they were 18 but started smoking during their military service. These men also scored lower than never-smokers (97 points, on average), indicating that nicotine withdrawal was probably not the cause of the difference.

The researchers also compared IQs for 70 pairs of brothers in the group in which one brother smoked and the other did not. Again, average IQs for the non-smoking sibling were higher than for the smokers.

The above findings suggest that adolescents with poorer IQ scores might be targeted for programmes designed to prevent smoking.
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