Second-Hand Smoke
Dr. Martha Tingen, a nurse researcher at the Georgia Prevention Institute, is the principal investigator on a $220,000 National Institute of Nursing Research grant determining whether exposure to second-hand smoke increases the chance that children with a family history of cardiovascular disease will develop the disease.
Researchers will study 585 teens who have a parent, grandparent or both with essential hypertension and/or a heart attack by age 55. They will look for adverse clinical cardiovascular measures, including reduced ability of arteries to dilate; the blood encountering increased resistance as it travels through vessels; higher blood pressure; and an increase in the size of the pumping change of the heart—a result of pumping against elevated pressure.