Secondhand smoke causes high blood pressure in children

Secondhand smoke causes high blood pressure in children

11.01.2011

Passive smoking damages health, which has been known for a long time. A new study found that children are at particular risk from inhaling cigarette smoke for a variety of reasons. Scientists at the University of Heidelberg have found that passive smoking in children can not only lead to lung and bronchial complaints or allergies, but also significantly increases the risk of hypertension (high blood pressure).

Passive smoking raises children's blood pressure
Georg Hoffmann, Managing Director of the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital, and his colleagues, in collaboration with the Rhein-Neckar Health Department, investigated around 4,200 kindergarten children in Heidelberg and the surrounding area, who were regularly exposed to their parents' cigarette smoke at home , The researchers now have their results in the current issue of the specialist journal „Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association” released. Accordingly, the five to six-year-old children who inhaled cigarette smoke at home were 21 percent more likely to develop hypertension. The increased risk for a disease of hypertension persists into adulthood, which is accompanied by a significantly higher risk of stroke and heart attack, according to the scientists of the University of Heidelberg. „With this study we have shown for the first time that passive smoking in children increases blood pressure significantly“, emphasized Georg Hoffmann.

Passive smoking is a clear risk factor for hypertension
The Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine researchers also found that 28.5 percent of fathers and 20.7 percent of mothers smoked, with their children having above-average levels of high blood pressure even at nursery school age. Although high blood pressure is due to other risk factors such as genetic predisposition (heredity), low birth weight or overweight later in life. However, hypertension also occurred more frequently in normal-weight children without any identifiable risk factors if their parents smoked, the researchers report by Georg Hoffmann. From this it can be deduced that passive smoking in addition to the well-known factors to increase the risk of hypertension, significantly increased, the researchers continue. It was particularly critical for the health of the children, when mothers smoked, as they rather at home resort to the cigarette than fathers, who smoked rather at the workplace, so the researchers of the University of Heidelberg in the publication of their study. That the blood pressure of the parents also plays a role, that is, if mother or father suffer from increased blood pressure, the likelihood of hypertension is high in the offspring, should be taken into account in the assessment of the disease risk, however, in any case, said the scientists of the Center for children and adolescent medicine.

Hypertension is widespread in Germany
In the industrialized countries, the prevalence of hypertension has been consistently high since the 1980s, and in Germany, the country with the highest prevalence of hypertension in Europe, around 20 million people currently suffer from hypertension, according to the health authorities. While at a young age only relatively few people have hypertension, the incidence increases steadily with age and in the over-60s only about one in four have normal blood pressure values. Hypertension is one of the most common consultations in general medical practice in Germany. What contribution the findings of the Heidelberg researchers to the risk potential of passive smoking in children can now make in the context of combating hypertension remains to be seen. Because it actually appeared due to the considerable health risk, which emanates from the passive smoking, so far already taken for granted that parents ignite in the presence of their children and especially in closed rooms no cigarette.

Risk factors: secondhand smoke and smoking in pregnancy
Passive smoking not only increases the high blood pressure risk, but promotes the development of hyperactivity, according to a study by the scientists of the Helmholtz Zentrum and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The researchers found that children who grew up in a smoking environment, both before and after birth, are twice as likely to develop hyperactive behavior as children of non-smokers. In addition, a study by Harvard University's Healthcare Institute, which examined the criminal record of 4,000 adults and their mothers 'tobacco use, found that mothers' smoking promotes criminal behavior among their children. The risk of her children being later offended was increased by 30 percent for mothers who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day during pregnancy. In addition, the likelihood of early asthma in children and grandchildren of smoking women is significantly increased, as researchers from the University of Southern California in a comprehensive study identified. An im „British Medical Journal“ In addition, a long-term study showed that children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy suffered significantly more diabetes or morbid obesity later in life than non-smokers. (Fp)

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Passive smoking kills 600,000 people every year
Frequent middle ear infection by passive smoking

Picture: R. Krautheim