what is a pack year?

Question

i.e. what is equivalent to 1 pack year? smoking point of view

Answer 1

Pack years are common calculations in the medical field. Basically, you ask the patient how many packs per day they smoke on average. You also ask them how many years they've been smoking. Then you multiply these two numbers for their "pack years". So if I smoked 1 pack per day for 10 years that would equal 10 pack years. If I smoked 2 packs per day for 10 years, that would be 20 pack years.