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European Heart Journal Advance Access originally published online on January 26, 2007
European Heart Journal 2007 28(3):380; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehl466
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© The European Society of Cardiology 2007. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Variation in hospital admission for AMI unlikely to be attributable to smoking legislation

Robert West

Wales Heart Research Institute
Department of Cardiology
Heath Park
Cardiff CF14 4XN
UK
Tel: +44 2920 742319
Fax: +44 2920 744556
E-mail address: westrr{at}cf.ac.uk

Fransesco Barone-Adesi and colleagues present an interesting analysis of hospital admissions for MI around the introduction of Italy's national smoking ban.1 They claim to have observed an 11% reduction in admissions aged <60, almost entirely attributable to removal of exposure to ‘side smoke’, by comparing 5 months admissions after introduction of the ban, with a comparable period in the previous year. Such a marked and early effect would be of considerable public health and political interest.

However, it should be noted that they report no reduction overall (RR = 1.01, 0.97–1.06), and it was only by dividing admissions into four groups, men and women and young (<60) and not so young, that a significant reduction (RR = 0.75, 0.58–0.96) could be observed in the smallest group, young women, 3% of all. They also provide comparable data for three more pre-ban years, and inspection of the full 5-year data demonstrates considerable variation. All 20 observations (5 years and four age–sex groups) fall well within 95% confidence limits of respective mean values; there is no significant reduction of admissions in the single post-ban period.

It is perhaps premature to report an age-specific effect of anti-smoking legislation on incidence of MI.

References

  1. Barone-Adesi F, Vizzini L, Merletti F, Richiardi L. (2006) Short-term effects of Italian smoking regulation on rates of hospital admission for acute myocardial infarction. Eur Heart J 27:2468–2472.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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This Article
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