 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Women who smoke while they are pregnant may be setting their kids up to become smokers themselves.
Australian researchers looked at 3,058 mothers and children. They compared the children's smoking patterns when they reached age 21 to the smoking behaviors of their mothers during pregnancy. About one-third of the women in the study smoked while they were pregnant.
Text Continues Below
Results reveal more children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy become regular smokers compared to children from mothers who did not smoke or smoked at other times but not while they were pregnant. Children whose mothers smoked while they were pregnant were almost three-times as likely to start smoking regularly by the time they were age 14 and about twice as likely to start smoking after age 14 compared to children whose mothers did not smoke.
The study also showed children whose mothers stopped smoking while they were pregnant but then started up again had similar smoking patterns to children whose mothers had never smoked.
The authors conclude the study suggests smoking during pregnancy has a direct effect on a child's chances of smoking. They say the results are another reason to persuade pregnant women not to smoke.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Tobacco Control, 2006;15:452-457
|
.gif)
