Smokers still largely unaware of heart disease risks
An international study has found that despite two decades of global tobacco control efforts, the message still is not getting through to enough smokers that smoking and secondhand smoke cause heart attacks and strokes.
An international research project has revealed that two decades of global tobacco control efforts have not been effective in communicating the dangers of smoking to enough smokers. Led by researchers at the University of Waterloo and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study—published in the BMJ Open journal—analyzed data from over 240,000 adult smokers across 46 countries over two decades.
Despite more than 90% of smokers being aware that smoking causes lung cancer, only around 80% knew it caused heart disease or heart attacks, and 70% knew it caused strokes. In several high-income countries like Australia, Germany, England, the United States, New Zealand, and Canada, fewer than half of adult smokers were aware that secondhand smoke caused heart disease or heart attacks.
China, home to 300 million smokers, had the lowest awareness levels among the studied countries. Dr. Janet Chung-Hall, the study's lead author, emphasized that these knowledge gaps are deeply troubling, especially since smoking causes over 2 million cardiovascular deaths annually worldwide. The study found that while awareness of smoking's cardiovascular risks improved in some countries like Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, it remained stagnant in most high-income nations, and in some cases, even decreased, including Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, England, and Japan.
The research also highlighted that while about 90% of smokers knew that smoking causes lung cancer, fewer were aware that secondhand smoke does, with little improvement over time. The study's findings underscore the urgent need for stronger, sustained public education campaigns about both the cancer and cardiovascular risks of smoking and secondhand smoke.
Dr. Geoffrey T. Fong, the study's principal investigator, called for policies such as large pictorial warnings and sustained media campaigns to increase awareness, discourage smoking initiation among youth, and encourage smokers to quit. These measures are part of the global tobacco control treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which over 180 countries have signed.
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