Model estimates for the rate of change in FEV₁ in never smokers and effects of other smoking patterns (compared with never smokers) on the rate of change in FEV₁ (mL/year)^*.

<p><i>Definition of abbreviations</i>: ARIC = Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities; B58C = British 1958 Birth Cohort; BHS = Busselton Health Study; CARDIA = Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults; CHS = Cardiovascular Health Study; FHS = Framingham Heart Study; Health ABC = Health, Aging, and Body Composition; KORA = Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg; LBC1921 = Lothian Birth Cohort 1921; LBC1936 = Lothian Birth Cohort 1936; PIVUS = Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors; RS = Rotterdam Study; SAPALDIA = Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults; SE = standard error; SHIP = Study of Health in Pomerania.</p><p>^*Data shown are the effect estimates (β and SE) of the time and smoking-by-time interaction terms in the preliminary mixed effects model fully adjusted for all specified variables except the SNP terms. Time represents the rate of change in FEV₁ in never smokers and the smoking-by-time interaction term represents the effects of the other three smoking patterns on the rate of change in FEV₁, compared with never smokers. Smoking categories are defined as persistent (smoke throughout follow-up), intermittent (stop and/or start smoking during follow-up) and former (smoke only prior to start of follow-up).</p>†<p>Effect estimates in smoking categories are added to estimates in never smokers to compute the actual rate of change in each group (for example, in ARIC, the point estimate of the rate of change in FEV₁ in persistent smokers was −14.0 − 12.4 = −26.4 mL/year).