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Children of parents who smoke at increased risk for carotid atherosclerotic plaque
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Children who were exposed to parental smoking in early life had double the risk for carotid atherosclerotic plaque in adulthood compared with children not exposed to smoking, according to results published in Circulation.
Researchers evaluated data on 2,448 participants enrolled in the prospective Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study, which assessed risk factors for CVD in early life. Exposure to parental smoking during childhood was assessed according to parent self-reports in 1980 and 1983, and serum levels of cotinine were assessed in 2014 among 1,578 participants using frozen samples collected in 1980. The cohort also underwent carotid ultrasound in 2001 or 2007.
“Although we cannot confirm that children with a detectable blood cotinine in our study was a result of passive smoke exposure directly from their parents, we know that a child’s primary source of passive smoke exposure occurs at home,” Costan Magnussen, PhD, senior research fellow at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Australia, said in a press release.
Undetectable levels of cotinine were most common among participants who grew up in households where neither parent smoked (84%) and lowest among those from households where both parents smoked (43%). Participants who grew up in households with one parent who smoked had undetectable cotinine levels in 62% of cases.
Carotid atherosclerotic plaque was detected in 2.6% of participants. Risk for carotid atherosclerotic plaque occurring during adulthood was significantly higher among participants who grew up in a household with one or more parent who smoked (RR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1-2.8) after adjustment for potential confounders. Similar results were observed for both maternal smoking (RR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1-2.8) and paternal smoking, specifically (RR = 1.8; 95% CI, 0.9-3.5).
Risk for carotid plaque was particularly pronounced among participants with detectable levels of serum cotinine, which was classified as “nonhygienic parental smoking” (RR = 4; 95% CI, 1.7-9.8), but was also present among participants with undetectable cotinine levels, classified as “hygienic parental smoking” (RR = 1.6; 95% CI, 0.6-4). In a subset of 1,330 participants with available data on serum cotinine and all other evaluated covariates, researchers observed a numerical risk increase among those with detectable vs. nondetectable cotinine levels (RR = 2; 95% CI, 0.9-4.2)
“These data add to the growing body of evidence proposing that exposure to parental smoking early in life has an irreversible effect on arterial health in adulthood by demonstrating that parents who are unable to give up smoking can nonetheless lessen their child’s risk of future cardiovascular burden by exercising good smoking hygiene,” Magnussen and colleagues wrote. – by Adam Taliercio
Disclosure: Magnussen reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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