(CNN) There is growing evidence that hookah smoking affects heart rate and blood pressure, with chronic use linked to an increased risk of heart disease, the American Heart Association warned Friday.

Use of hookah or shisha pipes to smoke tobacco is on the rise among young people in the United States and elsewhere, with the National Youth Tobacco Survey showing 4.1% of American high school students smoked hookah over the previous 30 days in 2011, compared with 4.8% in 2016, according to the American Heart Association. The authors of the new report also warn that there is often a misperception that it is less harmful than cigarette smoking, according to the association.

"Many young people mistakenly believe that smoking tobacco from a hookah is less harmful than cigarette smoking because the tobacco is filtered through water, but there is no scientific evidence that supports that claim," said lead author Aruni Bhatnagar, a professor of medicine at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Smoking hookah carries health risks such as diabetes, obesity and increased risks of heart disease and heart attack, he explained.

"From the review of the evidence, we found that hookah smoke contains many of the same toxic chemicals that are present in cigarettes, and sometimes, these harmful chemicals are even higher in hookah than in cigarettes." The report reviewed more than 100 studies on hookah smoking.

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