Thirty-something Smokers Five Times Likelier To Suffer Heart Attack

PARIS, Aug 24 (AFP) - People in their thirties who smoke are five times likelier to suffer from a non-fatal heart attack than non-smokers, according to a study which appears on Tuesday.
Finnish epidemiologist Markku Mahonen and colleagues analysed data from a World Health Organisation study into cardiovascular disease, conducted in 21 countries between 1985 and 1995.
The WHO study looked at the medical history of more than 22,000 non-fatal cardiac arrests -- 18,762 in men and 4,047 in women -- among volunteers aged 33 to 64.
Eighty percent of those who had a heart attack between the ages of 35 and 39 were smokers.
Men in this age band who smoked were 4.9 times likelier to have a heart attack than their non-smoking peers, and the rate was even higher among women smokers, at 5.3.
The study appears in Tobacco Control, a specialist publication of the British Medical Association (BMA).