Data-based questions: the effect of smoking on health

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________________

One of the largest ever studies of the effect of smoking on health involved 34 439 male British doctors. Information was
collected on how much they smoked from 1951 to 2001 and the cause of death was recorded for each of the doctors
who died during this period. The table below shows some of the results. The figures given are the number of deaths per
hundred thousand men per year.

# of cigarettes smoked per day

Type of disease 0 7 19 26
respiratory 107 237 310 471
circulatory 1 037 1 447 1 671 1 938
digestive 8 11 33 34
liver 6 13 22 68
Parkinson’s disease 20 22 6 18

Using Excel, copy the above table into a new spreadsheet. With the information, make a single graph of mortality rate
versus number of cigarettes smoked per day for each type of disease. For each type of disease, calculate a value for R,
correlation between two variables. Fill in the information below:

Is there a correlation between mortality rate and the number of cigarettes smoked per day in a variety of diseases

respiratory disease, R = 0.971

circulatory disease, R = ___________

digestive disease, R = ___________

liver disease, R = ___________

Parkinson’s disease, R = __________

1. Deduce whether there is a positive correlation between smoking and the mortality rate due to all types of
disease. [1]

2. Using the data in the table, discuss whether the threat of health from smoking is greater with respiratory or with
circulatory diseases. [4]

The Effect of Smoking on Health

3. Discuss whether the data suggests that smoking a small number of cigarettes is safe. [3]

4. Discuss whether the data supports that smoking is a cause of cirrhosis of the liver. [3]

5. The table does not include deaths due to cancer. The survey showed that several types of cancer are linked with
smoking. Suggest three cancers that you would expect smoking to cause. [3]

6. Copy the graph you produced on the opposite page and attach it below.

The Effect of Smoking on Health