Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with childhood bone fractures in offspring – A birth-cohort study of 6718 children

Abstract

In children there is limited understanding about the biological and environmental risk factors of fractures. Therefore, we aimed to study the effect of maternal smoking on preschool children's fractures hypothesizing that the fracture risk might be programmed during intrauterine growth in means of disturbed bone formation.A prospective birth cohort included women living in Northern Finland with an expected date of delivery between July 1st, 1985 and June 30th, 1986 (N=9362), and their offspring (N=9432). Smoking was inquired during pregnancy and when the offspring reached seven years of age. Information on in-hospital-treated fractures among the children was collected from the National Hospital Discharge Register (NHDR). The cases who declined to participate or suffered from any bone dysplasia such as osteogenesis imperfecta or any malignancy were excluded, thus 6718 subjects (71.2%) were finally included. Poisson regression analysis with adjustment for gender, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, socioeconomic status of the family, maternal age and body mass index (BMI) of the children was used to determine the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and bone fractures.Maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with a 1.83-fold (95% CI 1.06–3.02, p=0.022) increased risk of in-hospital-treated fractures at pre-school age. The fracture risk in childhood is perhaps increased as a result of modified bone development of the fetus due to maternal smoking.