According to the American Heart Association’s Heart and Stroke Statistical Update 2021, over 480,000 U.S. adults die each year from cigarette smoking. Sadly, a recent study found that cigarettes were the most common form of tobacco product used among CVD sufferers, at 82.8%, and e-cigarette use remained comparatively low at 23.3%. Moreover, e-cigarette use without concurrent cigarette use among participants with CVD was uncommon at 1.1%.
After analyzing all the data, the researchers concluded that despite being aware of all the harmful cardiovascular effects that come with smoking, about one fourth of adults with prevalent CVD use tobacco products and only few quit smoking over the 4 waves of the PATH data set.
Smokers developed CVD at a younger age
Meanwhile, titled “Cigarette Smoking and Competing Risks for Fatal and Nonfatal Cardiovascular Disease Subtypes Across the Life Course,” the current study found that some smokers will never be aware they are CVD sufferers as the first manifestation of the disease will be a fatal event.
Combining data from nine long-term cohort studies in the US, the research team looked at multiple lifestyle factors as well as cardiovascular and other health outcomes. The analysis included data from 106,165 adults (50.4% women; 16.2% Black adults; 50.1% cigarette smokers) aged between 20 and 79, who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the studies, and found that that in some smokers the first manifestation of the disease may be fatal.
“Our findings note that preventing a heart attack, stroke or heart failure is vital, yet preventing unexpected sudden death as the first manifestation of cardiovascular disease is clearly a priority. People who smoke may not realize the harm cigarettes are causing their body until it’s too late,” said lead study author Sadiya S. Kahn. “Another notable finding among people who smoked was the early onset of CVD, and among those who developed CVD, how much younger they were. There’s not a lot of research on young adults who smoke, particularly among young men. Our study adds important perspective.”
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