Heart attack cases drop after smoking ban
Thursday June 10th, 2010
A ban on smoking in public places across England led to 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attack in the following 12 months, a study has found.
Dr Anna Gilmore, lead researcher from the University of Bath, said given the high rate of heart attacks in the country, even this “relatively small reduction... has important public health benefits”.
The findings in the report, The short-term impact of smokefree legislation in England: a retrospective analysis on hospital admissions for myocardial infarction, published on bmj.com today, were welcomed by the British Heart Foundation.
Betty McBride, Director of Policy and Communications at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Banning smoking in public places was a bold step and now we have evidence showing that was absolutely right.
“It’s brilliant news that an average three fewer people a day are admitted to hospital suffering a heart attack. What’s more, we’ll see more benefits in future because heart attacks aren’t the only way that tobacco smoke harms the heart.”
Dr Gilmore said the introduction of smoke-free laws on July 1, 2007 was followed by a 2.4 per cent reduction in heart attack admissions.
The authors collected data on emergency hospital admissions for patients aged 18 or older from July 2002 to September 2008 and compared the records for the five years before the introduction of smoke-free laws to the period after legislation came into force.
Previous studies have shown that exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke can trigger a heart attack or increase the risk of heart disease, although research looking at the effects of smoke-free legislation have had varying results.
What makes Dr Gilmore’s research so important is because England – with a population of 49 million – was the largest jurisdiction to go smoke-free. The study also adjusted the data to take into account underlying trends in admissions and variations in other factors such as seasonal temperature and population size.
The short-term impact of smokefree legislation in England: a retrospective analysis on hospital admissions for myocardial infarction by Michelle Sims, research officer, Roy Maxwell, senior analyst, Linda Bauld, professor of social policy, Anna Gilmore, clinical reader in public health, clinical senior lecturer, is published in the British Medical Journal.
BMJ 2010;340:c2161 doi:10.1136/bmj.c2161
Tags: Drug and Alcohol Abuse | Heart Health | UK News
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