Smoking cessation closely associated with lower suicide risk in diabetes patients: Study
A new study published in the journal of Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice showed that in individuals with type 2 diabetes, quitting smoking was linked to a lower incidence of suicide death. Even people who gained or kept weight after stopping continued to have this impact.
Given its advantages for metabolic and cardiovascular health, quitting smoking is highly advised for those with type 2 diabetes. Recent studies examined the impact of post-cessation weight changes on suicide mortality in type 2 diabetic patients. While giving up smoking often lowers overall mortality, changes in body weight, particularly large gains or losses, may have an impact on psychological health and suicide risk. This study looked at whether quitting smoking was linked to suicide mortality in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and how weight changes after quitting affected this relationship.
This study used information from the South Korean National Health Insurance Service database, which included 456,936 persons with type 2 diabetes who had medical exams from 2015 to 2016. Based on their answers from 2 consecutive health examinations, the subjects were classified as either current smokers (n = 360,139) or recent smokers (n = 96,797).
A total of 1,397 suicide fatalities were reported over a mean follow-up of 5.7 years. The risk of suicide death was considerably lower among individuals who had recently stopped smoking (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.72–0.94) than in those who maintained smoking.
Suicide mortality was lower in quitters with steady weight (HR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.70–0.99) or increased weight (HR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.59–0.95), but not in those with severe weight loss (HR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.70–1.31).
Overall, based on this extensive investigation, quitting smoking was linked to a reduced suicide death rate among individuals with type 2 diabetes. The importance of supporting smoking cessation attempts regardless of post-cessation weight fluctuations is shown by the fact that the favorable benefit of quitting remained considerable even among people who gained weight after stopping.
Source:
Jeong, C., Kim, B., Oh, D. J., Sohn, T.-S., Han, K., & Kwon, H.-S. (2025). Effect of smoking cessation and post-cessation weight change on suicide mortality in type 2 diabetes: A nationwide cohort study. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 230(112967), 112967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2025.112967
