A Case Control Study on the Patterns of Blood Pressures and Aerobic Capacity Among Young Adult Smokers

Abstract

Introduction: - India is home to about 12% of the world’s smokers. More than 1 million people die every year due to tobacco related illnesses. Smokers have tendencies to be less physically active than non-smokers. We hypotheses that there was a significant relation between smoking and decrease in cardiovascular fitness. The purpose of this study was to examine the chromic effects of smoking on cardiovascular fitness and Blood pressure in young and adult smokers.
 Methods: This was case control study conducted in a span of 3 months in local General Medicine OPDs. 80 Subjects chosen for the study (40smokers & 40 non-smokers) involving both the genders, aged 18 years to 25 years and all classes of socio economic strata. 80 male participant were recruited & divided into two group 40 smoker (A) , 40 non-smoker (B). BP & Heart rate (HR) were non-invasively measured in young non-smoking and subjects at rest, during the accomplishment of a sub maximal exercise test and recovery period. Smoking status of smokers was analyzed by three parameters, i.e., years of smoking, number of cigarettes smoke per day, and pack year.
 Result: There was no significant difference between both groups regarding to age, weight and height. The mean duration of smoking among smoker group was 4.84±2.57 years. No. Of Cigarettes were 4.62±2.35 SBP, DBP & PP were pre-hypertensive, 40% were hypertensive. There was Significant difference w.r.t Resting Heart Rate, HR after Exercise, Recovery HR & Exercise duration among smoker and non-smoker group.
 Conclusion: Smoking was found to affect young smokers’ HR, increasing HR at rest, slowing HR increase during exercise, and impairing their ability to reach the age predicted HR max. In addition, smoking was associated with an attenuated HR decline during recovery. Smokers had a higher resting HR and showed a higher HR response during sub maximal exercise compared to Non smokers.
 Keyword: Smokers, aerobic capacity, Blood pressure, Heart rate.