Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 May 2011
This is the third in a series of three papers. In the first paper we describe a comprehensive stochastic model of an individual's lifetime that includes diagnosis with ischaemic heart disease and stroke and also the development of the major risk factors for these conditions. The second paper discusses in some detail models for changes in body mass index (BMI) and also the effects of these changes, in particular the current trend towards increasing prevalence of obesity, on diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and expected future lifetime. This paper is devoted to the following applications of the model described in the first paper:
(a) quantifying the effects of smoking and of changes in smoking habits, and,
(b) quantifying the effects of treatment with statins (drugs designed to lower cholesterol).