Cigarette Smoking and Incident Heart Failure: Insights From the Jackson Heart Study

Background: Cigarette smoking has been linked with several factors associated with cardiac dysfunction. We hypothesized that cigarette smoking is associated with left ventricular (LV) structure and function, and incident heart failure (HF) hospitalization. Methods: We investigated 4129 (never smoker n=2884, current smoker n=503, and former smoker n=742) black participants (mean age, 54 years; 63% women) without a history of HF or coronary heart disease at baseline in the Jackson Heart Study. We examined the relationships between cigarette smoking and LV structure and function by using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging among 1092 participants, cigarette smoking and brain natriuretic peptide levels among 3325 participants, and incident HF hospitalization among 3633 participants with complete data. Results: After adjustment for confounding factors, current smoking was associated with higher mean LV mass index and lower mean LV circumferential strain ( P P Conclusions: In blacks, cigarette smoking is an important risk factor for LV hypertrophy, systolic dysfunction, and incident HF hospitalization even after adjusting for effects on coronary heart disease.