In 2017, around 9500 deaths in Switzerland were attributed to tobacco consumption. This corresponds to around 14% of all deaths or one in seven deaths in this year. For men, the rate decreased from 212 to 142 deaths per 100 000 population between 1997 and 2017, with the curve flattening since 2012. For women, the rate remained relatively stable over the entire period at around 80 deaths per 100 000 population. This trend can also be seen in the proportion of tobacco-attributable deaths in all deaths: while this proportion was on the decline for men and stood at 18.5% in 2017, it changed only slightly for women (1997: 9.3%, 2017: 10.2%). The most common causes of tobacco-attributable deaths are cancer and heart disease, accounting for 45% and 26% of deaths respectively in 2017.
This indicator is part of the Monitoring System Addiction and NCD (MonAM) of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).
Tobacco consumption is the biggest risk factor for deaths in Switzerland. The main causes of death from tobacco use are non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and other types of cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The indicator on tobacco-attributable mortality shows the trend in the effects of tobacco use on men and women.
The data basis for this indicator is the Swiss Health Survey, the cause of death statistics, the population statistics of the Federal Statistical Office and other data sources. The methodology used for the calculations is based on a study by Mattli et al. (2019). Detailed information on the diseases resulting from tobacco use that caused the deaths were the subject of an additional mandate to the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. The results are only available in the MonAM.
The indicator shows the number, the crude rate and the percentage of estimated tobacco-attributable deaths among all deaths. The crude (unstandardised) rate shows the mortality rate per 100 000 population.
The estimates only consider the disease burden caused by the smoking of tobacco. Other types of consumption of tobacco such as snuff or snus and other forms of nicotine consumption such as e-cigarettes have not been considered. The disease burden of passive smoking has not been considered.
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