Smoking tobacco from childhood can cause premature heart damage, reports study
Cigarette smoking from childhood into early adulthood is associated with an increased risk of premature cardiac injury, according to a study published today in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology. This early damage to the structure and function of the heart can also significantly increase the chance of future cardiovascular (CVD) mortality in mid-life.
“Our goal is to provide data for policymakers, clinicians, and public health practitioners on crucial timing for preventing smoking and its early consequences in youth,” said Andrew Agbaje, MD, MPH, PhD, lead and senior author of the study and an associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Child Health at the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. “Parents and caregivers must lead by example and government agencies should be bold to address the preventable heart disease risk by creating a smoke and nicotine-free country. Raising tobacco taxes is insufficient because the cost of health care due to smoking-related diseases twice exceeds tobacco tax profits. Why should we pay for what is killing our teenagers softly?”
Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland collaborating with the University of Bristol used the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort data to examine the impact of tobacco smoking during growth from childhood to young adulthood and its association with structural and functional cardiac injury.
Cardiac injury refers to damage to the heart muscle, or the myocardium, and can occur from causes such as ischemia (reduced blood flow), inflammation, trauma or chronic diseases. Cardiac mass increase is the increase in size or weight of the heart and is often associated with cardiac hypertrophy, or the thickening of the heart muscle walls. Both conditions can affect heart function. Adolescent smoking has been associated with vascular injury in adolescence and CVD mortality in midlife. However, studies of cardiac structure and function in healthy children are scarce, since cardiac injury in childhood is usually due to rare clinical events.
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