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. 1987 Aug;62(8):786–791. doi: 10.1136/adc.62.8.786

Maternal smoking during pregnancy and lower respiratory tract illness in early life.

B Taylor 1, J Wadsworth 1
PMCID: PMC1778463  PMID: 3662581

Abstract

In a national study of 12,743 children maternal, but not paternal, smoking was confirmed as having a significant influence on the reported incidence of bronchitis and admission to hospital for lower respiratory tract illness during the first five years of life. Reported rates of admissions to hospital for lower respiratory tract diseases were found to be as high in children born to mothers who stopped smoking during pregnancy as in those whose mothers smoked continuously both during and after pregnancy. Rates of admissions to hospital for lower respiratory tract diseases in children whose mothers started smoking only postnatally were no higher than in those whose mothers remained non-smokers. Postnatal smoking seemed to exert a significant influence on the reported incidence of bronchitis, but less than smoking during pregnancy. These findings suggest that maternal smoking influences the incidence of respiratory illnesses in children mainly through a congenital effect, and only to a lesser extent through passive exposure after birth.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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