Study: Smoking Near Children Increases Their Heart Disease Risk as Adults
Published at(NEW YORK) — Children exposed to their parents’ secondhand smoke are at double the risk of developing heart disease later in life, according to a new study.
Researchers looked at nearly 2,500 children over 26 years in a study published Monday in the journal Circulation.
Children who were exposed to one or both parents’ cigarette smoke were at significantly higher risk of having carotid atherosclerotic plaque, which is plaque in the arteries in the neck, as adults.
Researchers also found higher rates of problems of children with smoking mothers than fathers alone.
Parents who practiced “good smoking hygiene,” such as not smoking in the vicinity of the child, increased the risk for their offspring, but significantly less than those who had “poor smoking hygiene,” according to researchers.
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