Many adults with a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) continue to smoke cigarettes and/or use other tobacco products, despite knowing it increases their risk of having another cardiovascular event, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association.
To understand how many adults with CVD continue to use tobacco products, investigators reviewed survey responses from the large, national Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (PATH) to compare tobacco use rates over time. The participants of the current study included 2,615 adults (ages 18 or older) with a self-reported history of heart attack, heart failure, stroke or other heart disease, who completed four surveys over a course of four to five years.
The first survey occurred from 2013-2014, and the last one from 2016-2018. When the study began, nearly half of the study participants were women (48.5%); from self-identified responses 77% were white adults, 10.5% were Black adults, 8% were Hispanic adults and the remainder were multi-racial or other. In 2013 to 2014, nearly one-third of study participants (28.9%) reported using tobacco. This percentage translates to approximately 6 million U.S. adults who use tobacco despite a history of CVD.
Among the tobacco products used by study participants:
- Cigarettes were the most common form of tobacco product used (82.8%), followed by any types of cigars (23.7%) and e-cigarettes (23.3%). Many participants used more than one type of tobacco product.
- E-cigarette use without concurrent cigarette use among participants with CVD was uncommon (1.1%).
- Use of smokeless tobacco products was reported by 8.2% of participants.
- Use of other tobacco products was uncommon: pipe=3.7%; hookah=3.0%; snus (a Swedish, smokeless tobacco product)=1.2%; and dissolvable tobacco=0.3%.
Lindsay M. Reynolds et al. – Journal of the American Heart Association – 2021-06-09.
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