title: Smoking and the incidence of coronary heart disease in an Australian population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the impact of smoking on the incidence of coronary heart disease in Australia. Data collected for the WHO MONICA Project were used.
  
  
  METHODS
  Combined data from a community-based register of all suspected coronary events and a survey of risk factor prevalence in a random sample of the same population.
  
  
  METHODS
  All residents of the Hunter Region of New South Wales aged 35-69 years who had a first acute myocardial infarction or fatal heart attack (without a history of coronary heart disease) between 1 January 1986 and 31 December 1990.
  
  
  METHODS
  Acute myocardial infarction or coronary death, as defined by the WHO MONICA Project.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Men who are current smokers are 2.9 times (95% CI, 2.7-3.1) more likely than non-smokers to have a first myocardial infarction or fatal heart attack, and for women the equivalent figure is 3.5 times (95% CI, 3.2-3.8), after adjusting for age. Current male smokers with a history of hypertension are 4.5 times more likely to have a coronary event (7.9 times in women) than are non-smokers without a history of hypertension. The age-adjusted excess rate was 566 per 100,000 per year in men and 373 per 100,000 per year in women. Smoking is a stronger predictor of coronary heart disease incidence than a history of hypertension (relative risk [RR] = 1.6 for men and 1.9 for women) or a known history of hypercholesterolaemia (RR not significantly different from 1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cigarette smoking plays a more important role in the causation of a first myocardial infarction or fatal heart attack and appears to have more influence on the incidence of coronary heart disease in Australia than hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Royal Newcastle Hospital, NSW.
authors.forename: B Y
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Dobson
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Heller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000453:epidemiology