Smoking tobacco since childhood can cause premature heart damage

The study shows that smoking in adolescence not only increases the risk of heart disease later in life, but also causes early and lasting damage to heart muscle and function.

According to its authors, it is a wake-up call to reinforce prevention efforts and protect young hearts in time.

The researchers of the University of Eastern Finlandused data from the birth cohort study ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) to examine the impact of smoking during growth from infancy to young adulthood and its association with structural and functional cardiac lesions.

The term heart injury refers to damage to the heart muscle, or myocardium, which can occur from causes such as ischemia (reduced blood flow), inflammation, trauma, or chronic diseases. Increased cardiac mass, which is associated with cardiac hypertrophy (thickening of the muscular walls of the heart), can affect cardiac function.

Although smoking in adolescence has been linked to dvascular year and cardiovascular mortality in middle agestudies on cardiac structure and function in healthy children are scarce, since cardiac lesions in childhood are usually due to rare clinical events.

The analysis included 1,931 young adults with complete data on smoking and echocardiographic measures at age 24 years. 60% of those who started the habit in childhood were still smoking at age 24.

“Our goal is to provide data so that policy makers, doctors and public health professionals can identify key moments to prevent smoking and its early consequences in young people,” he says. Andrew Agbajesenior author of the study and associate professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Child Health at the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.

“Parents and caregivers must lead by example, and government agencies must take bold steps to address the preventable risk of heart disease by creating a smoke- and nicotine-free country. Increasing tobacco taxes is insufficient, as the cost of health care due to smoking-related diseases doubles tax revenue. “Why should we pay for what is silently killing our teenagers?” he adds.

Heart damage

The researchers found that tobacco smoking from ages 10 to 24 was associated with a 33% to 52% increase in the likelihood of premature structural and functional cardiac injury. Furthermore, an increase in cardiac mass was observed, even after adjusting for competing risk factors.

“The increase in cardiac mass structure in just a few years of smoking should be a clear sign of the danger faced by those who start smoking at a young age,” Agbaje emphasizes.

Limitations include lack of data on socio-environmental influences, such as parental or friend smoking, and alcohol consumption. Cotinine levels, which quantify actual nicotine exposure, were also not analyzed. Finally, the majority of participants were Caucasian, which could limit the generalizability of the findings to other racial groups.