Cent Eur J Public Health 2016, 24(4):276-280

Active Smoking and Associated Behavioural Risk Factors before and during Pregnancy - Prevalence and Attitudes among Newborns' Mothers in Mures County, Romania

Florina Ruta¹, Calin Avram², Septimiu Voidăzan³, Claudiu Mărginean⁴, Vladimir Bacârea⁵, Zoltán Ábrám⁶, Kristie Foley⁷, Andrea Fogarasi-Grenczer⁸, Melinda Pénzes⁹, Monica Tarcea¹

¹ Department of Community Nutrition and Food safety, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tirgu-Mures, Romania

² Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tirgu-Mures, Romania

³ Department of Epidemiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tirgu-Mures, Romania

⁴ Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tirgu-Mures, Romania

⁵ Department of Research Methodology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tirgu-Mures, Romania

⁶ Department of Hygiene, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tirgu-Mures, Romania

⁷ Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

⁸ Department of Family Care and Methodology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Institute of Public Health, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

⁹ Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Public Health, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

Background and Aim: Smoking before, during and after pregnancy leads to detrimental outcomes on maternal and foetal health and represents an important public health issue. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence and correlates of smoking before and during pregnancy in a sample of Romanian women.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among mothers (N=1,278) in three maternity hospitals in Tirgu-Mures, Romania, immediately after childbirth, in 2014. We evaluated the prevalence of smoking before and during pregnancy and used binary logistic regression to assess the influence of socio-demographics and other health behaviour factors in three groups of women: non-smoking pregnant women, women who continued smoking during pregnancy, and smokers who quit during pregnancy.

Results: 30% of the interviewed mothers were smokers prior to pregnancy, of whom 43.3% continued smoking during pregnancy. Women with a family income of less than 100 Euro/month (OR=3.01, 95% CI: 1.02-8.83) and those who were unemployed (OR=13.2, 95% CI: 3.90-44.79) had increased odds of continued smoking versus quitting during pregancy in multivariable analyses. Women who continued smoking during pregnancy were also more likley to be of lower socioeconomic status than never smokers (OR=14.1, 95% CI: 4.97-39.6).

Conclusions: A high percentage of women of reproductive age smoke and continue to smoke despite their knowledge about risks of smoking during pregnancy. Smoking prior to and during pregnancy is predominantly associated with lower socioeconomic status. Women with limited economic means should be a high priority target group for smoking cessation interventions.

Keywords: smoking, pregnancy, risk factor, cessation, intervention

Received: September 12, 2015; Revised: February 9, 2016; Accepted: February 9, 2016; Published: December 1, 2016  Show citation