Background: Comprehensive smoke-free laws have been followed by drops in hospitalisations for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), including in a study with 2 years follow-up for such a law in Uruguay.
Methods: Multiple linear and negative binomial regressions for AMI admissions (ICD-10 code 121) from 37 hospitals for 2 years before and 4 years after Uruguay implemented a 100% nationwide smoke-free law.
Results: Based on 11 135 cases, there was a significant drop of -30.9 AMI admissions/month (95% CI -49.8 to -11.8, p=0.002) following implementation of the smoke-free law. The effect of the law did not increase or decrease over time following implementation (p=0.234). This drop represented a 17% drop in AMI admissions following the law (IRR=0.829, 95% CI 0.743 to 0.925, p=0.001).
Conclusions: Adding two more years of follow-up data confirmed that Uruguay's smoke-free law was followed by a substantial and sustained reduction in AMI hospitalisations.
Keywords: Low/Middle income country; Secondhand smoke; Surveillance and monitoring.
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