Tobacco Documents Online

Martin, M.J., Hunt, S.C. and Williams, R.R., "Increased Incidence of Heart Attacks in Nonsmoking Women Married to Smokers," Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Abstract, 1986. This study is available only in abstract form, based on a presentation at a 1986 meeting of the American Public Health Association. The study was based on the self-reported health history and smoking status of a group of parents of Utah high school students. Women~between the ages of 30 and 59 who had never smoked, were classified according to whether their husbands were smokers, never smokers or exsmokers. Of the 7,115 nonsmoking women, 23 reported having had a heart attack. The authors reported that, compared to women whose husbands had never smoked, women married to smokers had a relative risk of 4.4. After statistically controlling for family history of coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, weight, alcohol intake and amount of exercise, this relative risk was 3.4. Both values were reported as statistically significant. The authors also suggested that the risk may have increased with length of exposure, and that women married to former smokers also had an elevated risk, although not as great as for women married to current smokers. The authors concluded~: These results suggest that women married to smokers have an increased risk of heart attacks as a result of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.