Secondhand smoke tied to elevated odds of HF
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Secondhand smoke exposure was associated with elevated odds of HF, especially in men, according to a presentation at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session.
“[The study] adds to overwhelming evidence that secondhand smoke is harmful. Secondhand smoke has been associated with stroke and heart attacks, but what really hadn’t been reported before was its association with heart failure, which is a very debilitating and costly disease,” Travis Skipina, MD, resident in the department of internal medicine at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, said in a press release.
To investigate the association between secondhand smoke, researchers analyzed 11,219 nonsmokers from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III from 1988 to 1994 (mean age, 48 years; 56% women).
The researchers found that 18.9% of participants had recent secondhand smoke exposure, defined as serum cotinine of at least 1 mg/dL, whereas 3.7% had HF.
According to the researchers, nonsmokers with secondhand smoke exposure had a 35% increased odds for developing HF compared with those with serum cotinine less than 1 mg/dL (OR = 1.35; 95% CI, 1.03-1.78).
The researchers found that the association was stronger in men than in women (P for interaction = .03) and also stronger in participants with a history of CVD compared with those without CVD (P for interaction = .001).
The researchers also found a dose-response relationship between serum cotinine level and HF risk, as those with serum cotinine of at least 3 mg/dL had a 66% elevated HF odds (OR = 1.66; 95% CI, 1.21-2.27), and those with serum cotinine of at least 6 mg/dL had a 72% elevated HF odds (OR = 1.72; 95% CI. 1.23-2.4).
“For whatever reason, in males, the impact of secondhand smoke appears to be more likely to put them at risk of heart failure. Males, in general, tend to get cardiovascular disease at a younger age, and overall, they were younger, so that may be why they were predisposed,” Skipina said in the release.
“There is a dose-response relationship between secondhand smoke exposure and HF with possible effect modification by sex and prior CVD. These findings underscore the harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure on the cardiovascular system and highlight the needs for further restrictions on smoking in public areas and for a personalized risk assessment among high-risk groups,” the researchers wrote in an abstract.
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Skipina T, et al. Public Health and Heart Failure: Emerging Evidence. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; May 15-17, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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