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MedWire News:
Children born to women exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)
during pregnancy face an increased risk for asthma symptoms in early
life, researchers warn.
“Smoking during
pregnancy has been shown to be a considerable risk factor for changes
in growth and maturation of the fetal lungs and the later development
of wheeze and asthma,” explain Paraskevi Xepapadaki
(University of Athens, Greece) and team in the journal Pediatric
Allergy and Immunology.
But they add it is not
known whether passive smoking in pregnancy is associated with an
increased risk for asthma and allergies in offspring.
To investigate, the
researchers studied data on 2374 preschool children, aged between 1 and
6 years, from 115 nurseries in five counties of Greece.
The children’s
parents completed questionnaires detailing demographic characteristics,
current and past smoking habits, and pre- and postnatal exposure of
mothers and children to ETS.
They were also asked
about their children’s history of wheeze and whether they had
been diagnosed with asthma. Furthermore, any history of adverse
reactions to foods and diagnoses of food allergies among the children
was ascertained.
Analysis revealed that
children born to mothers who actively smoked during pregnancy were 1.47
times more likely to have a history of wheezing, 1.66 times more likely
to have doctor-diagnosed asthma, 1.38 times more likely to have
suffered a pruritic rash in the last 12 months, and 1.16 times
more likely to have doctor diagnosed atopic dermatitis than those born
to a mother who did not smoke during pregnancy.
In multivariate analysis
children born to non-smoking mothers who were regularly exposed to ETS
during the third trimester of pregnancy were 1.42 times more likely to
be current wheezers, 1.46 times more likely to have doctor-diagnosed
asthma, and 1.45 times more likely to have suffered a pruritic rash in
the last 12 months, than women without such exposure.
ETS exposure during other
trimesters was not signficantly associated with these outcomes.
“This study
demonstrates for the first time that passive exposure of non-smoking
pregnant women to ETS may be associated with the development of
allergy- and asthma-related symptoms in their children,”
Xepapadaki and team conclude.
They add: “In addition
to encouragement of smoking cessation, efforts should be made for
pregnant women not to be exposed to ETS in public places. Clinicians
need to be aware of this risk factor and encourage pregnant women to
avoid such exposure.” |
