What is the 'British Doctors Study'?

What is the 'British Doctors Study'?

Robert Friis (Chair, Health Sciences Department, California State University, Long Beach ) gives expert video advice on: How did John Snow impact epidemiology?; How did John Graunt change epidemiology? and more...

The 'British Doctors Study' was a milestone in epidemiology, because it identified the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. It is always surprising when we hear about doctors who smoke, because they are supposed to safeguard our health. What the investigators did, was to try to examine the occurrence of mortality from one cancer among physicians, and try to show linked association between the number of cigarettes smoked and mortality rates. In fact they were able to do this in the 'British Doctors Study'.