The effects of quitting smoking are well documented among older individuals who have had a heart attack. But the benefits have not been well studied among adults who have experienced a heart attack before age 50—a segment of the population with increasing rates of heart attack.
Based on an analysis of registry data collected from 2000 to 2016, researchers found that half of adults who experienced a heart attack before age 50 were active smokers. And among those who quit within a year of their first heart attack, rates of death from heart disease or any cause of death were more than 70 percent lower than those who did not quit.
Of the 2,072 individuals in the registry, 1,088 were smokers at the time of their heart attack. Available data on smoking status at one year revealed that 343 patients quit smoking, while 567 continued to smoke. Both groups were comparable in terms of age and race. Over ten years, 75 (13%) of the persistent smokers died compared to 14 (4%) of those who had quit within a year of their first heart attack. Of the persistent smokers, 30 died of a heart attack or other cardiovascular event compared to six of those who had quit smoking. The study, funded by NHLBI, is published in the journal JAMA Network Open.