Relationship of predominantly mild current smoking to out-of-office blood pressure in a community sample in Africa

Objectives As the impact of mild smoking on blood pressure (BP) is uncertain, we assessed the relationship between predominantly mild current smoking and out-of-office BP and the effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) genotype on this relationship in a community sample of black African ancestry. Methods In 689 participants randomly recruited from an urban, developing community of black African descent, we assessed smoking habits, out-of-office (24-h), and in-office conventional and central (applanation tonometry) BP, and ACE insertion (I)/deletion (D) variant genotype. Results A total of 14.5% (n = 100) were current smokers, the majority being mild (72%, 7.4 ± 4.6 cigarettes/day). Despite current smokers having only modest increases in in-office (P