You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Research letter
Preventive behaviours in avoiding indoor secondhand smoke exposure among pregnant women in China
  1. Xianglong Xu1,2,3,
  2. Yunshuang Rao4,
  3. Abu S Abdullah5,6,
  4. Manoj Sharma7,
  5. Jeff J Guo8,
  6. Yong Zhao1,2,3
  1. 1School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
  2. 2Research Center for Medicine and Social Development, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
  3. 3The Innovation Center for Social Risk Governance in Health, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
  4. 4School of Nursing, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
  5. 5Global Health Program, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China
  6. 6Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, USA
  7. 7Behavioral & Environmental Health, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
  8. 8College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
  1. Correspondence to Professor Yong Zhao, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University. No, 1 Yixueyuan Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400016, China; zhaoyong{at}cqmu.edu.cn

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053047

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Dear editor

    Secondhand smoke (SHS) is a major indoor pollutant that causes serious health problems among all those exposed, especially pregnant women.1 Prevalence of exposure to SHS among pregnant women is high in China.2 In the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey in China, 65.1% of non-smoking women of childbearing age were exposed to SHS at home and another 52.6% were exposed to SHS in the workplace.3 Globally, it was estimated that about one-third of adults (33% men and 35% women) are exposed to SHS,4 which is comparatively lower than the exposure level in Chinese women. This pattern of exposure to SHS among adults highlights the fact that many of the over 100 million annual pregnant women globally will be exposed to SHS, and will expose their unborn children to tobacco-induced harms.1 Therefore, public health implications of exposure to SHS during pregnancy by women and their babies are substantial3 and need urgent attention. This study examined the behavioural practices of pregnant Chinese women in avoiding exposure to SHS in indoor environments.

    A cross-sectional survey, using a structured questionnaire, was conducted among pregnant women, recruited from 16 hospitals in 5 provinces of China, from June to August 2015. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Chongqing Medical …

    View Full Text