Smoking During Pregnancy Relates to Asthma and Wheezing in Children, Indicates Study

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Mothers who smoke while pregnant place their unborn child at risk for asthma and wheezing, finds a study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The authors collected data from questionnaires completed by parents of 5,762 children in grades 4, 7, and 10 who participated in the Children's Health Study. The purpose of the study was to look at the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and childhood exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and childhood asthma and wheezing.

• 18.8% of the children were exposed to maternal smoking in utero;



• 39.5% of the children had any lifetime exposure to ETS;



• In utero exposure to maternal smoking without subsequent postnatal ETS exposure was associated with physician-diagnosed asthma and wheezing;



• Among children with both in utero exposure to maternal smoking and subsequent household ETS, ETS exposure did not appear to increase the occurrence of asthma or wheezing beyond that associated with in utero exposure; and



• In utero exposure was independently associated with all the subcategories of asthma and wheezing examined.

The authors found that in utero exposure to smoking adversely affects postnatal lung function and increases the occurrence of asthma. They concluded that "reducing the burden of chronic respiratory diseases may require a stronger focus on the reduction of smoking among women during their childbearing years."

Gilliland FD, Li Y, Peters JM. 2001. Effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy and environmental tobacco smoke on asthma and wheezing in children. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 163(2):429-436. Study available at http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org.

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MCH Alert. 2001. Arlington, VA: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health. http://www.ncemch.org/alert.