EFFECTS OF PASSIVE SMOKING ON ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE MORTALITY OF NONSMOKERS: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Abstract

The mortality attributable to lschemlc heart disease as a result of cigarette smoking is greater than that due to lung cancer. Between 1972 and 1974, in a prospective study of a community of older adults in southern California, the authors tested the hypothesis that nonsmoking women exposed to their hus band's cigarette smoke would have an elevated risk of fatal ischemlc heart disease. Married women aged 50–79 years who had never smoked cigarettes (n = 695) were classified according to the husband's self-reported smoking status at entry Into the study: never, former, or current smoker. After 10 years, non smoking wives of current or former cigarette smokers had a higher total (p ≤0.05) and age-adjusted (p ≤ 0.10) death rate from Ischemlc heart disease than women whose husbands never smoked. After adjustment for differences in risk factors for heart disease, the relative risk for death from lschemlc heart disease In nonsmoking women married to current or former cigarette smokers was 14.9 (p ≤0.10). These data are compatible with the hypothesis that passive cigarette smoking carries an excess risk of fatal ischemlc heart disease. lschemlc heart disease; longitudinal studies; mortality; smoking, passive