Thursday, 03 August 2023, 02:18
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In a study conducted by a group of scientists and to be published in the Lancet magazine, an unexpected discovery was made related to the illness and premature death of people. Researchers at the Beijing Medical Center found that the number of deaths attributed to exposure to secondhand smoke from friends or loved ones or in another environment increased between 1990 and 2019.
Unexpectedly, health experts have noticed an unusual phenomenon, that passive smoking has led to a considerable number of deaths and lost years of healthy life among people of all ages globally, according to News Medical.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised all nations to create smoke-free environments and protect people from the negative health effects of passive smoking, such as increased risks of ischemic heart disease (IHD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower respiratory tract infections (LRIs), stroke and otitis media.
In the present study, researchers from China used 2019 data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study to update the prevalence of secondhand exposure and the associated health burden by age and sex in 204 nations and territories between 1990 and 2019.
They also decomposed the likely drivers of secondhand smoke-related health over time by population age, size and number of deaths.
The team documented the prevalence of secondhand smoke and its changes by sex, socio-demographic index (SDI) and year between 1990 and 2019. Pairs of risks and outcomes across ages were analyzed to estimate the burden of disease associated with SHS, as assessed by the number of deaths.
In the GBD 2019 study, the SHS-associated disease form included otitis media among pediatric subjects up to 14 years of age; and cancers involving the trachea, bronchi, and lungs, COPD, ischemic stroke, IHD, subarachnoid and intracerebral hemorrhage, diabetes, and breast cancer for people over 25.0 years of age, and respiratory tract infections.
The nations with the most passive smokers were predominantly high-to-medium SDI nations for men and low-to-medium and medium socio-demographic index countries for women.
From 1990 to 2019, Africa from South, MexicoMadagascar, Ecuador and United States showed that the fastest annual rates of reduction in passive smoking. In contrast, there were significant increases in Niger, Mali, El Salvador, Montenegro and Ghana. Among men, secondhand smoke exposure was most prevalent in Greenland, Montenegro, Papua New Guinea, North Macedonia and Kiribati, with prevalence rates of 51%, 51%, 50%, 49%, and 50%, respectively.
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Among women, passive smoking was very widespread in Vietnam, IndonesiaPapua New Guinea, China and Kiribati with prevalence rates of 69%, 75%, 66%, 63% and 64% respectively.
In 2019, 2,832 million people globally were exposed to secondhand smoke, 60% of whom were women. Additionally, approximately 1.3 million deaths were associated with exposure to secondhand smoke, of which 50% were in India and China or among women.
The main causes of death associated with passive smoking were: ischemic heart disease (31%), chronic lung disease (22%) and lower respiratory tract infections (13%).
Overall, the study’s findings showed that while the prevalence of secondhand smoke exposure has been reduced in most nations, the associated mortality has increased with population and elderly growth from 2010 to now.
2023-08-02 23:19:26
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