Study links heart failure risk to e-cigarette use

Data from an NIH-led study found that people who used e-cigarettes were 19% more likely to develop heart failure compared with people who never vaped.

Researchers used data from surveys and EHRs in the NIH-run All of Us study of 175,667 study participants. The average age of participants was 52 years, and over half were female.

In all, 3,242 participants developed heart failure within a median follow-up period of 45 months. The researchers accounted for demographic and socioeconomic factors, heart disease risk factors, and participants’ past and present use of other substances.

The connection between e-cigarettes and heart failure was not affected by participants’ age, sex, or smoking status.

“More and more studies are linking e-cigarettes to harmful effects and finding that it might not be as safe as previously thought,” said Yakubu Bene-Alhasan, MD, the study’s lead author in an American College of Cardiology (ACC) news release. “The difference we saw was substantial. It’s worth considering the consequences to your health, especially with regard to heart health.”

The findings will be presented at the ACC’s Annual Scientific Session.