Among middle-aged adults, 100% smoke-free policies are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), a recent study found. Using data from 3,783 black and white adults in the CARDIA study (1995-2015), researchers estimated associations of smoke-free policies with incident CVD in a longitudinal cohort after controlling for sociodemographics, CVD risk factors, and policy covariates. They found:

• During a median follow-up of 20 years, 172 participants had an incident CVD event (2.5 per 1,000 person-years).
• Participants living in an area with a restaurant (80%), bar (67%), or workplace (65%) smoke-free policy had a lower risk of incident CVD vs those in areas without smoke-free policies.
• The estimated preventive fraction was 25% for restaurant policies, 24% for bar policies, and 46% for workplace policies.