🧑🔬 Introduction
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of preventable mortality worldwide. Hypertension and tobacco consumption are two of the most significant risk factors. This project investigates the relationship between cigarette smoking and cardiovascular measures — specifically systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR) — using data from the Framingham Heart Study.
📋 Methods
A subset of 780 self-identified smokers aged 44–80 years was analyzed. Participants were
categorized into three groups: Light (≤5 cigarettes/day), Moderate (6–20/day), and Heavy (≥21/day).
One-way ANOVAs and t-tests were conducted to examine differences in SBP, DBP, and HR across groups
and by sex. Visualizations were generated in R with ggplot2.
📈 Results
Heavy smokers exhibited significantly higher SBP compared to moderate smokers. DBP differences approached significance, while HR showed no overall group differences. Stratified analyses revealed that female heavy smokers had higher SBP than female moderates, and moderate-smoking women had slightly higher HR than men in the same group.
👩🔬 Discussion
The findings suggest that heavy smoking is associated with elevated blood pressure, reinforcing smoking as a cardiovascular risk factor. However, the absence of differences between light and heavy smokers indicates that other variables (e.g., age, BMI, family history) may confound outcomes. Gender-specific effects were observed, highlighting the need for further research.
🛸 License
Distributed under the CC0-1.0 Universal License.
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