bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

A COLLABORATIVE study of heart disease by Hongkong and Chinese doctors has earned them one of the world's most prestigious awards in modern medicine.

  The research by Dr He Yao, of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xian, Dr Lam Tai-hing, Hongkong University reader in community medicine, and six others is the first research worldwide to show the relationship between heart disease and passive smoking at work.

  The Young Investigators Award is given every four years and only to researchers aged under 40.

  The study beat five other finalists to win the award, which was presented at the Third International Conference on Preventative Cardiology in Oslo, Norway, this month.

  Dr He began his study in Xian in 1989 and completed it while he was a visiting researcher in Hongkong University's Department of Community Medicine.

  The study compared 59 women, all of whom worked full-time, who were diagnosed as having coronary heart disease with a control group of 126 women without heart disease.

  The aim was to see whether being exposed to passive smoking at work was a factor in developing heart disease, Dr Lam said.

  The study found that women who were exposed to smoking at work had 145 per cent greater chance of developing heart disease than those who were not, he said.

  Dr Lam said the results remained consistent when all other variables, such as age, blood cholesterol and stress, were taken into account: while the risk level went down as expected, it was still high at 85 per cent.

  The study also looked at how much the women's co-workers smoked and how much they had been exposed to smoking in terms of hours each day and years.

  ''Dr He found that the increase in risk corresponded with the level of exposure to smoking,'' he said.

  ''The more you are exposed, the more you are likely to have heart disease.''   Other studies had looked at smoking by spouses but had sparked controversy among scientists.

  Dr Lam said this study and others were likely to result in more demand for smoke-free work places.

  ''People should not be forced because of their work to be exposed to other people's smoking,'' he said.

   Dr Judith Mackay, director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control, who delivered a speech at the Oslo conference, said the study was to her knowledge the first on smoking to have come out of a developing country.

  Other papers presented at the conference showed active smoking was a factor in 25 per cent of heart disease.

  ''The importance of this study is it actually shows passive smoking is harmful,'' she said.



Doctors honoured for heart disease research