HealthDay News — According to a study published in Heart, smoking is associated with an increased risk of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) — with the most pronounced increase among younger smokers.
Amelia Lloyd, from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, and colleagues analyzed the combination of admission data on patients with acute STEMI undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention and demographic data for the South Yorkshire population between 2009 and 2012.
The authors generated incidence rates and rate ratios to quantify the relative risk of STEMI from smoking. Data were included for 1795 STEMI patients, of whom 68 had no smoking status recorded.
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The researchers found that the incidence of STEMI was 59.7, 316.9 and 331.0 per 100,000 patient years at risk for smokers aged under 50 years, 50 to 65 years and over 65 years, respectively, compared to 7.0, 60.9 and 106.8 for the combined group of ex- and never smokers.
For smokers versus ex- and never smokers, the rate ratio was 8.47 for those under the age of 50 years, 5.20 for those aged 50 to 65 years, and 3.10 for those aged over 65 years.
“Smoking was associated with an eight-fold increased risk of acute STEMI in younger smokers, when compared to ex- and never smokers,” the authors write. “Further efforts to reduce smoking in the youngest are needed.”
Reference
Lloyd A, et al. “Pronounced Increase In Risk Of Acute ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction In Younger Smokers”. Heart. 2016. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2016-309595
Arbel Y. “When Will We Learn That Smoking Is Bad?”. Heart. 2016. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2016-310687
