Smoking among pregnant women in small towns in Pol

Authors: Łukasz Balwicki M ZarzecznaBaran Ł Wierucki T Jędrzejczyk M Strahl M Wrotkowska M L Goniewicz T Zdrojewski

Publish Date: 2015/09/04

Volume: 61, Issue: 1, Pages: 111-118

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Abstract

Prevalence of smoking in the beginning of pregnancy was confirmed by 346  of women During the pregnancy 147  of women declared quitting smoking and 199  continued smoking Cigarette smoking was most frequent in those with a primary education unemployed very low incomes in household and having both smoking parents In multifactorial analysis risk of smoking was highest 95  CI 174–606 for women that were divorced or not living with a partner compared with marriedRates of active smoking among a population of pregnant women living in small towns in Poland are very high Since the correlates of smoking during pregnancy are a low education level and a low economic status of the pregnant woman these socioeconomic groups should be first priority targetsTobacco smoking represents a huge health hazard for both a pregnant woman and her fetus and it also represents the most important modifiable risk factor for fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality US Department of Health and Human Services 2014 Pregnancy represents a conducive period when there is a valid incentive to quit smoking Research into the incidence of active and passive smoking and the credibility of pregnant women’s declarations of not smoking will help document the scale of the problem in the population and help the public health community to design effective educational and intervention activitiesPoland is one of the countries in the region of Central and Eastern Europe CEE that went through a political and economic transformation in early 1990s Health indicators in these countries were at that time much worse than the corresponding figures reported for the 15 ‘old’ members of the European Union Despite an improvement in these indicators over the past two decades the rate of changes has not been satisfactory Helis et al 2011 In Poland and other EU member states significant health disparities have been reported between people living in small towns with higher unemployment rates and people living in large cities Wojtyniak et al 2012Since 2002 epidemiological studies carried out in Poland have indicated that despite the introduction of various new legal restrictions and social education activities no noticeable decline in the number of female smokers has been observed even though the situation concerning smoking among the male population has improved Jassem et al 2014 The Polish edition of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey GATS conducted in Poland between November 2009 and March 2010 reported that on average in the population of adult females ie over 20 25  smoke every day 2  from time to time and 9  are exsmokers Polish Ministry of Health 2012 The percentage of female smokers in the Polish population is still below that of male smokers 37  of men smoke every day 2  from time to time 20  quit smoking and 41  have never smoked but the gender gap has been decreasing over recent years Chief Sanitary Inspectorate 2009A review of national surveys of tobacco smoking among women of reproductive age Przewoźniak et al 2009 has indicated that in Poland between 2000 and 2004 the prevalence of daily smoking was 358  in large cities over 100 K residents 331  in smaller towns and 26  in the countryside Przewoźniak et al 2009 However none of these studies explored the smoking rates among pregnant women from disadvantaged populations The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of tobacco smoke exposure among pregnant women in small towns in Poland We also aimed to evaluate the accuracy of selfreported smoking status among those women using validated biomarkers

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