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THURSDAY, Jan. 24, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Cigarette smoking is associated with measures of subclinical peripheral artery disease (PAD) in African-Americans, according to a study published online Jan. 23 in the Journal of the American Heart Association<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Donald Clark III, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, and colleagues examined the correlation between cigarette smoking and PAD in African-Americans in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS). A total of 5,306 JHS participants were classified into current, past, or never smokers by self-reported baseline smoking status. The authors examined correlations between baseline smoking status and intensity and measures of subclinical PAD (ankle-brachial index [ABI, visit 1] and aortic calcium by computed tomography [visit 2]).<\/p>\n
The researchers found that 68, 19, and 13 percent of participants, respectively, were never smokers, past smokers, and current smokers at baseline. Current smokers had an increased risk for ABI <1 and an increased risk for abdominal aortic and aortoiliac calcium after adjustment for covariates (odds ratios, 2.2, 8.4, and 9.6, respectively). Compared with lower-intensity use, those smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day had a higher likelihood of subclinical PAD by all these measures.<\/p>\n
“These data provide further evidence of the deleterious health effects of smoking in African-Americans and support further research exploring the impact of interventions on smoking cessation to reduce PAD in this population,” the authors write.<\/p>\n