(Press-News.org) Implementing smoke-free laws and increased tobacco taxes in India would yield substantial and rapid health benefits by averting future cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The results of this study, conducted by Sanjay Basu and colleagues of Stanford University, USA, suggest that specific tobacco control strategies would be more effective than others for the reduction of CVD deaths over the next decade in India and possibly in other low- and middle-income countries.
Cardiovascular diseases are conditions that affect the heart and/or the blood vessels. CVD has been a major cause of illness and death in high-income countries for many years, and now the burden of CVD is rapidly rising in low- and middle-income countries as well.
The authors investigated which tobacco control measures could best reduce the burden of CVD effectively in low- and middle-income countries by using a mathematical model. Their microsimulation model estimated the effects of various tobacco control measures and pharmacological therapies on deaths from heart attack and stroke in India between 2013 and 2022. Five different tobacco control measures were compared in the model: smoke-free legislation, tobacco taxation, provision of brief cessation advice by health care providers, mass media campaigns, and advertising bans. In addition, other factors such as increased access to aspirin, antihypertensive drugs, and statins were simulated for their effect on deaths from heart attack and stroke.
The authors conclude that, based on their model, smoke-free legislation and tobacco taxation are expected to be the most effective strategies for reducing heart attack and stroke deaths over the next decade. These two measures alone could prevent about 9 million deaths from heart attack and stroke in India by 2022, and a combination of tobacco control policies and pharmacological interventions could prevent even more deaths.
"One of the advantages of using large-scale surveys to inform these models," said lead author Sanjay Basu "is that we can account for unique populations who have different risk factors from places like the United States and the United Kingdom. For example, many Indians smoke informal cigarettes called 'bidis' which are highly risky to health but are often missed by standard models focusing only on manufactured cigarettes."
It should be noted that the findings presented in this paper are based on a large-scale household survey informing a mathematical model, and the conclusions are also dependent upon the quality of the data used in the model.
###
Funding: The South Asia Network for Chronic Disease (CM) is supported by a Wellcome Trust strategic award 084674/Z/08/Z. CM is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care scheme. SB is funded by Stanford University and the International Development Research Center of Canada. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: Basu S, Glantz S, Bitton A, Millett C (2013) The Effect of Tobacco Control Measures during a Period of Rising Cardiovascular Disease Risk in India: A Mathematical Model of Myocardial Infarction and Stroke. PLoS Med 10(7): e1001480. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001480
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001480
Contact:
Sanjay Basu
Stanford University
Department of Medicine
1265 Welch Road, Mail Code 5411
Stanford, CA 94305
UNITED STATES
basus@stanford.edu
Tobacco control measures in India could prevent heart disease and stroke deaths
2013-07-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Growth of cardiac services linked to competition, not improved patient care, study finds
2013-07-10
New interventional cardiac catheterization services offered by U.S. hospitals generally duplicate existing programs and do not help patients gain access to timely emergency cardiac care, according to a new study.
Examining new cardiac catheterization programs nationally from 2004 to 2008, researchers found the programs were most likely to be introduced in areas that had existing services, near populations that had higher rates of private health insurance and in states where there is little oversight of hospitals.
The findings are published online by the journal Circulation: ...
Females respond better to stress because of estrogen, UB animal study finds
2013-07-10
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The idea that females are more resilient than males in responding to stress is a popular view, and now University at Buffalo researchers have found a scientific explanation. The paper describing their embargoed study will be published July 9 online, in the high-impact journal, Molecular Psychiatry.
"We have examined the molecular mechanism underlying gender-specific effects of stress," says senior author Zhen Yan, PhD, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. "Previous studies have ...
Birds outpace climate change to avoid extinction
2013-07-10
A new study has shed light on the potential of birds to survive in the face of climate change. In the analysis, based on more than fifty years' detailed study of a population of great tits near Oxford, UK, a team of scientists were able to make predictions about how the birds could cope with a changing climate in the future. They found that for small, short-lived birds like the great tit, evolution can work fast enough for genetic adaptation to keep pace with a changing environment. However, even for such fast-evolving species, evolution on its own is not enough.
By studying ...
Mycobacteria get all the advantages of sex with none of the downsides
2013-07-10
Sexual reproduction is costly to those organisms that depend on it, like humans. For starters, only half of the population can bear offspring and the other half has to work hard to make sure they're included in the future gene pool. The payoff is that sexual reproduction allows the mixing of parental genomes to generate potentially beneficial new combinations of gene variants that had not previously coexisted on the same strand of DNA, or to separate beneficial mutations from detrimental ones.
In contrast, bacteria reproduce by asexual reproduction—this is more efficient ...
Pre-eclampsia poses cerebral palsy risk for premature and small babies
2013-07-10
Pre-eclampsia affects 3-5% of pregnant women and can lead to preterm delivery, prematurity, perinatal morbidity and mortality. Although preterm birth and low birth weight are associated with excess risk of CP, the causes remain largely unknown.
Some studies have found an excess risk of CP in children born at term from mothers with pre-eclampsia while others have reported no association.
Researchers from Norway therefore tested the hypothesis that pre-eclampsia poses a risk of CP in preterm and small babies. This is the first study to report that the association between ...
Doctor calls for investigation into possible lack of informed consent in premature baby studies
2013-07-10
Dr Sidney Wolfe, founder and senior adviser to the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, says it is surprising that the adequacy of consent forms for nearly identical studies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other countries with similar regulation of human research, has apparently not yet been examined.
He argues that there may well be "serious problems" with such risk disclosure that must be addressed.
The study, called SUPPORT, was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and took place at many universities across the US between 2005 and 2009. ...
Association of low vitamin D levels with risk of CHD events differs by race, ethnicity
2013-07-10
In a multiethnic group of adults, low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease events among white or Chinese participants but not among black or Hispanic participants, results that suggest that the risks and benefits of vitamin D supplementation should be evaluated carefully across race and ethnicity, according to a study in the July 10 issue of JAMA.
"Low circulating concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) have been consistently associated with increased risk of clinical and subclinical coronary heart ...
Rates of major CV procedures differ between Medicare Advantage and fee-for-service beneficiaries
2013-07-10
In a study that included nearly 6 million Medicare Advantage and Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries from 12 states, rates of angiography and percutaneous coronary interventions were significantly lower among Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and geographic variation in procedure rates was substantial for both payment types, according to a study in the July 10 issue of JAMA.
"Treatment of cardiovascular disease is one of the largest drivers of health care cost in the United States, accounting for $273 billion annually. Cardiovascular procedures are major contributors ...
Soy protein supplementation does not reduce risk of prostate cancer recurrence
2013-07-10
Among men who had undergone radical prostatectomy, daily consumption of a beverage powder supplement containing soy protein isolate for 2 years did not reduce or delay development of biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer compared to men who received placebo, according to a study in the July 10 issue of JAMA.
"Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and the second most frequent cause of male cancer death in the United States and other Western countries but is far less frequent in Asian countries. Prostate cancer risk has been inversely associated ...
Research examines differences in rates of cardiac catheterization between New York State and Ontario
2013-07-10
The increased use of cardiac catheterization in New York relative to Ontario appears related to selecting more patients at low risk of obstructive coronary artery disease, with the subsequent diagnostic yield (i.e., the proportion of tested patients in whom disease was diagnosed) of this procedure in New York significantly lower than in Ontario, according to a study in the July 10 issue of JAMA.
"The continuing increase in health care expenditures is threatening the sustainability of the health care system and the economy of many developed countries. Debates among the ...