Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Serum Cholesterol and Triglyceride Levels; Implication for Cardiovascular Morbidity

This study was designed to compare serum Cholesterol and triglyceride levels between cigarette smokers and non-smokers and to evaluate the effect of smoking intensity on these parameters. This was a cross-sectional comparative study between 40 non-cigarette smokers and 60 cigarette smokers between ages 25 and 55 years residing in Ekpoma, Nigeria. Volunteers were apparently healthy non-obese male subjects who gave informed consents. Questionnaires were used to collect data on age and smoking intensity. Blood samples were collected for analysis of serum lipids using standard procedures. Data were the analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t-test on SPSS version 20.0 and P values of less than 0.05 was considered significant. The results showed significantly lower mean total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in non-smokers as compared to cigarette smokers. There was a dose dependent significant increase (p