I thought it was a lack of will...I had three reasons to quit smoking
Mar 13, 2025
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A joint research team led by Professor Park Jae-min of the Department of Family Medicine at Uijeongbu Eulji Hospital, Professor Lee Ji-won of the Department of Family Medicine at Severance Hospital, and Director Hong Kyung-won of Terrazen Health analyzed the genetic information of 4,364 Korean men and produced this result.
The research team classified the subjects into 1,326 non-smokers, 1,684 former smokers, and 1,354 current smokers using data from the Korean Genome Epidemiology Survey Project by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Then, a total of 1644 single base polymorphisms were analyzed in 12 genes related to nicotine metabolism to examine the relationship between gene mutations and the success rate of smoking cessation in detail.
As a result, six monobase polymorphisms (rs2431412, rs45625338, rs41297431, rs118063322, rs144769946, and rs2715904) were significantly associated with successful smoking cessation.
Further analysis, which calculated genetic risk scores based on six monobase polymorphisms, showed that higher scores were more likely to remain smokers, supporting the fact that genetic factors are important in the success of smoking cessation.
The research team predicted that the use of genetic risk scores could predict the possibility of successful smoking cessation and establish a customized strategy for each individual.
For example, a person with a genotype with a fast nicotine metabolism can have severe withdrawal symptoms, so it is a method of strengthening drug treatment or providing additional counseling.
The research team also confirmed that the average alcohol consumption (219.8g) per week of current smokers is much higher than that of past smokers (167.6g) and non-smokers (116.9g), and that the rate of regular exercise is lower in current smokers (46.2%) than in past smokers (62.2%) and non-smokers (61.7%). This suggests that lifestyle and genetic factors work in combination with smoking cessation.
Smoking is considered a major risk factor for causing various diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.
As of 2023, the male smoking rate in Korea is high at 32.4%, and statistics have also been published that 19.5% of the causes of death in Korean men are directly related to smoking from 2011 to 2015.
Professor Park Jae-min explained that "Nicotin metabolic rate has a significant impact on the success of smoking cessation, which depends on genetic characteristics."This study is significant in that it presents the necessity and basis for establishing a customized smoking cessation strategy for Koreans, away from existing Western-centered research."
Professor Park then added "We will continue to research genomes reflecting Korean characteristics and develop various customized health care programs to contribute to reducing medical expenses and promoting public health at the national level."
Meanwhile, the study was recently published in the SCIE-level international journal 『Life Genomics』.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
