Passive smoking and pregnancy outcome in central Poland

Abstract

1 The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the effect of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on the risk of preterm delivery (PD) and small-for-gestational age (SGA) infants in a female non-smoking population of central Poland. 2 The study group were 1751 women classified as non-smokers in the comprehensive project on 'ocio-economic and environmental risk factors of preterm delivery and small-for-gestational-age babies in cen-tral Poland' conducted on a randomly selected population of 2080 women who gave birth to a child between June 1, 1996 and May 31, 1997. The PD group comprised 95 non-smoking women who delivered before 37 weeks of pregnancy and the SGA group included 111 non-smoking mothers of babies with birthweight below the loth percentile of the standard curves for central Poland. Passive exposure to tobacco smoke was determined based on a structured interview. 3 In the stepwise multiple logistic regression model maternal passive smoke exposure lasting 7 h or more was found to be a significant risk factor for preterm delivery. No significant effect of passive smoking on the risk of SGA was observed. 4 The information about the adverse effects of ETS exposure on pregnancy duration and outcome should be incorporated in the health promotion programmes for women.