Children Exposed to Smoke May Be At Risk For High Blood Pressure

Published in JAMA Network Open, the study titled, “Analysis of Active and Passive Tobacco Exposures and Blood Pressure in US Children and Adolescents,” found that 43% of the children surveyed were exposed to tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke exposure was defined as a child who smoked, lived with a smoker, reported smoking, or had serum samples indicating recent exposures to nicotine greater than 0.05 micrograms per liter.

The data were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2016, of 8,520 children aged between 8 and 19. Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Consortium, Dr. Karen Wilson, said that the numbers are concerning. “We think that tobacco smoking is going down when in fact, the rate of adult smokers is decreasing, but children are still likely to be exposed.”

Children exposed to second-hand smoke are admitted to hospital more often

Meanwhile, another recent study by researchers from the University of Cincinnati, found that children who are exposed to second-hand smoke from cigarettes tend to be admitted to hospital more often.

Besides having higher rates of hospital admissions after visiting emergency departments or urgent care facilities, being exposed to tobacco smoke also increased the young patients’ likelihood of having respiratory-related procedures performed while in the emergency department.

Published last October in Pediatric Research, the study titled “Child tobacco smoke exposure and healthcare resource utilization patterns,” compared the admission rates of 380 children exposed to tobacco smoke, with 1,140 children who were not exposed. The findings indicated that children exposed to tobacco smoke were 24 times more likely to be admitted to hospital than non-exposed children.

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