Passive smoking from husbands as a risk factor for coronary heart disease in women in Xi’an, China, who have never smoked

Abstract

Up to 1997, 20 epidemiological studies had been conducted on passive smoking and coronary heart disease, and 17 showed an increased risk. On the basis of six review papers with pooled relative risks (RRs), the pooled RR for coronary heart disease associated with passive smoking from a spouse was 1.3 (California Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). In China, the prevalence of smoking in a national survey carried out in 1984 was 61% among men and 7% among women (Weng et al., 1987). Passive smoking at home is a serious health problem for non-smoking women in China. The objective of this paper was to determine whether passive smoking from husbands is a risk factor for coronary heart disease in Chinese women who have never smoked.