Researchers in France report a 79% increased risk of developing adult arthritis for children who were exposed to secondhand smoke.
Research has previously found a link between active smokers and rheumatoid arthritis, claiming female smokers nearly double their risk for the condition. Now experts claim there is also an increased risk of developing the disease if a smoker was around secondhand smoke as a child.
The study followed 70,598 women who are all smokers, born between 1925 and 1950, from 1990 to 2014. In adult smokers who had childhood passive exposure to smoke, there was a 1.73 hazard ratio. The hazard ratio for active smokers who were not exposed to secondhand smoke as a child was 1.37.
