Talk:Pack-year

Needs more info. Like, how much more harmful is a 5 packyear smoker compared to a 10 pack year smoker? Is it harder for a 8 packyear to quit than it is for a 4 packyear? This page presents a new concept to me, the packyear, but it doesn't go any further than that JayKeaton 11:00, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Agreed
/signed and Agreed. Every physician should be familiar and comfortable with the usage of this term. I've already reformatted the page, and will add its clinical significance with references in the near future.Wmasoud 18:23, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Category
Should the article really be in category "Medical tests"? I can't see how it would qualify as one, since you don't "test" one for the number of pack years, it is just calculated. DiamonDie (talk) 15:30, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

if someone's up for writing
This article needs some further details on calculating pack years from other sources of tobacco like a pipe. A link to an online calculator would also be nice.

Olipals (talk) 14:34, 21 June 2011 (UTC) You can check out this online calculator http://smokingpackyears.com/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.15.34.22 (talk) 13:36, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Definition
Although the example is taken from cancer.gov, I think it is flawed. A smoker smoking "40 cigarettes per day for half a year" is expected to continue smoking that amount of cigarettes for a whole year, so the figure would be "2 pack years" rather than "1 pack year" as stated in the example. The "pack year" quantification is not intended to measure months of smoking, but years of smoking (viz. "the amount a person has smoked over a long period of time"). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.194.239.35 (talk) 00:14, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
 * You are confusing measurement and prediction. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.14.90.154 (talk) 12:46, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

What is the significance of the pack year and risk? For example is there a scale that says if you are above a 30 pack year smoking history your risk for COPD, CA, CAD etc increases by x%?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.57.229.96 (talk) 15:46, 24 January 2013 (UTC)