A patient reports smoking one pack of cigarettes per day for 20 years, then two packs a day for the last 10 years. What is this patient's pack-year history?
Understand the Problem
The question asks to calculate a patient's pack-year smoking history based on their reported smoking habits. We need to calculate pack-years, where one pack-year is equivalent to smoking one pack of cigarettes per day for one year. The calculation involves summing the pack-years from each period of smoking history.
Answer
The patient has a 40 pack-year smoking history.
The patient's pack-year history is 40 pack-years. This is calculated by adding the pack-years from the first 20 years (1 pack/day * 20 years = 20 pack-years) to the pack-years from the next 10 years (2 packs/day * 10 years = 20 pack-years).
Answer for screen readers
The patient's pack-year history is 40 pack-years. This is calculated by adding the pack-years from the first 20 years (1 pack/day * 20 years = 20 pack-years) to the pack-years from the next 10 years (2 packs/day * 10 years = 20 pack-years).
More Information
A pack-year is a quantity used to measure the number of cigarettes a person has smoked over a long period of time. It is calculated by multiplying the number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day by the number of years the person has smoked.
Tips
A common mistake is to only calculate the pack-years for one period of smoking history, and forget to calculate for all periods and add them together.
Sources
- Pack Years Calculator - MDCalc - mdcalc.com
- Definition of pack year - NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms - cancer.gov
- Calculating Pack/Years: How to measure how much you smoke - roswellpark.org
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