Abstract
PurposeTo evaluate the effect of (1) maternal smoking during pregnancy; and (2) partner smoking on offspring's height in infancy, childhood, and adolescence.MethodsAll hospital live births from 1993 (5,249) were identified, and these infants were followed up at several ages. Height for age, expressed as z-scores using the World Health Organization growth curves, was measured at all follow-up visits. Maternal smoking during pregnancy was collected retrospectively at birth and analyzed as number of cigarettes/day smoked categorized in four categories (never smoked, <10, 10–19, and ≥20 cigarettes/day). Partner smoking was analyzed as a dichotomous variable (No/Yes). Unadjusted and adjusted analyses were performed by use of linear regression.ResultsThe prevalence of self-reported maternal smoking during pregnancy was 33.5%. In the crude analysis, the number of cigarettes/day smoked by the mother during pregnancy negatively affected offspring's height in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. After adjustment for confounders and mediators, this association remained statistically significant, although the magnitude of the regression coefficients was reduced. Paternal smoking was not associated with offspring's height in the adjusted analyses.ConclusionsIn addition to the well-known harmful effects of smoking, maternal smoking during pregnancy negatively affects offspring's height. Public health policies aimed at continuing to reduce the prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy must be encouraged.
Highlights
To evaluate the effect of (1) maternal smoking during pregnancy; and (2) partner smoking on offspring’s height in infancy, childhood, and adolescence
Never smoked
Maternal smoking during pregnancy negatively affects the offspring’s height through infancy, childhood, and adolescence, showing a negative dose-response effect of the number of cigarettes/day smoked by the mother during pregnancy on offspring’s height at all ages
Summary
To evaluate the effect of (1) maternal smoking during pregnancy; and (2) partner smoking on offspring’s height in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Maternal smoking during pregnancy negatively affects offspring’s height in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. This association is partially explained by impaired birth weight and birth size. The effect of modifiable variables early in life on several outcomes in later periods of life is an important aspect of public health These early variables affect maternal and child undernutrition, which in turn have negative short-term and long-term consequences for the offspring’s health [1e3]. Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been described as associated with intrauterine growth restriction and low birth weight [4], offspring’s obesity [5e9] with a doseresponse effect in childhood [10], and with shorter height [11] and stunting [12]. Leary et al observed that because of to the observational nature of most previous studies in this field, the possibility of residual confounding cannot be ruled out because of the social patterning of smoking [5,13]
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