Smoking partner can up your stroke risk

London, July 29 : The next time you're on a lookout for a suitable partner check out whether he puffs or not, for according to a new research, nonsmokers married to smokers have a greatly increased chance of having strokes.

In the study, the Harvard University team looked at records of more than 16,000 people.

The American Journal of Preventative Medicine study found the risk rose by up to 72percent for some non-smokers.

The stroke dangers to smokers are well known, but there are fewer studies, which have explored the risk from passive smoking.

In the study, researchers looked at people aged over 50, and their spouses, over a period of, on average, just over nine years.

After the results were adjusted for other factors, which could influence stroke risk, non-smokers living in the same house as a smoker were found to be at far greater risk of stroke.

The analysis revealed that if the person had never-smoked, living with a smoker raised stroke risk by 42percent.

If he or she had smoked at some point in their lives, but given up, the increase in risk was even higher, at 72percent.

Being married to a former smoker did not increase risk, suggesting that this extra risk would fall away if the partner stopped smoking.

"These findings indicate that spousal smoking increases stroke risk among non-smokers and former smoker. The health benefits of quitting smoking likely extend beyond individual smokers to affect their spouses - potentially multiplying the benefits of smoking," BBC quoted Dr Maria Glymour, who carried out the research, as saying.

ANI