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The effect of workplace smoking bans on heart rate variability and pulse wave velocity of non-smoking hospitality workers

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the effect of a change in second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure on heart rate variability (HRV) and pulse wave velocity (PWV), this study utilized a quasi-experimental setting when a smoking ban was introduced.

Methods

HRV, a quantitative marker of autonomic activity of the nervous system, and PWV, a marker of arterial stiffness, were measured in 55 non-smoking hospitality workers before and 3–12 months after a smoking ban and compared to a control group that did not experience an exposure change. SHS exposure was determined with a nicotine-specific badge and expressed as inhaled cigarette equivalents per day (CE/d).

Results

PWV and HRV parameters significantly changed in a dose-dependent manner in the intervention group as compared to the control group. A one CE/d decrease was associated with a 2.3 % (95 % CI 0.2–4.4; p = 0.031) higher root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), a 5.7 % (95 % CI 0.9–10.2; p = 0.02) higher high-frequency component and a 0.72 % (95 % CI 0.40–1.05; p < 0.001) lower PWV.

Conclusions

PWV and HRV significantly improved after introducing smoke-free workplaces indicating a decreased cardiovascular risk.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Vicki Schweigler, Rebecca Patuto, Céline Bürgi, Melisa Calabrese and Alexander Wieg for their contributions to the data collection. This work was supported by the Swiss Tobacco Prevention Fund (grant number 09.002032). Dr. Wellenius was funded by grant R00-ES015774 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), NIH.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics Statement

Ethical approval was obtained from the EKBB (Ethics committee of both cantons of Basel) and all participants signed an informed consent before every examination (Ref. No. EK 317/09).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4051, Basel, Switzerland

    Sarah Rajkumar & Martin Röösli

  2. University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Sarah Rajkumar & Martin Röösli

  3. Institute of Exercise and Health Sciences, Sports Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss

  4. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Gregory A. Wellenius

  5. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zürich and Center for Organizational and Occupational Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Georg F. Bauer

  6. Institute for Work and Health, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Cong Khanh Huynh

  7. Department of Respiratory Medicine, University Children’s Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

    Alexander Moeller

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  1. Sarah Rajkumar
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  2. Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss
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  3. Gregory A. Wellenius
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  4. Georg F. Bauer
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  5. Cong Khanh Huynh
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  6. Alexander Moeller
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  7. Martin Röösli
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Correspondence to Martin Röösli.

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Rajkumar, S., Schmidt-Trucksäss, A., Wellenius, G.A. et al. The effect of workplace smoking bans on heart rate variability and pulse wave velocity of non-smoking hospitality workers. Int J Public Health 59, 577–585 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0545-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0545-y

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