Passive smoking in childhood can cause irreversible damage to children’s arteries, researchers warned yesterday.
Researchers from Australia and Finland say the thickening of artery walls caused by exposure to smoke, means that these children will be at a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes later on.
Exposure to both parents smoking in childhood prematurely ages blood vessels by 3.3 years by adulthood, say Dr Seana Gall of the University of Tasmania, Australia, and colleagues.
They used information on 2,401 people in a cardiovascular risk factor study, as well as 1,375 participants in a study of the childhood determinants of adult health. Participants were aged between three and 18 years at the start of the studies. Parents’ smoking habits were recorded and the thickness of the children’s artery walls at adulthood was measured.
This showed that carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), a measurement of the thickness of the innermost two layers of the arterial wall, was 0.015 mm thicker in those exposed to both parents smoking than in those whose parents did not smoke, increasing from an average of 0.637 mm to 0.652 mm.
Full details appear today (5 March) in the European Heart Journal. The authors say: "Our study shows that exposure to passive smoke in childhood causes a direct and irreversible damage to the structure of the arteries.
"Parents, or even those thinking about becoming parents, should quit smoking. This will not only restore their own health but also protect the health of their children into the future. In addition, those with both parents smoking were more likely, as adults, to be smokers or overweight, adding further heart risk factors."
Gall, S. et al. Exposure to parental smoking in childhood or adolescence is associated with increased carotid intima-media thickness in young adults: evidence from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study and the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study. European Heart Journal 5 March 2014 doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehu049
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