RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Parental smoking and children’s respiratory health: independent effects of prenatal and postnatal exposure
JF Tobacco Control
JO Tob Control
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 294
OP 301
DO 10.1136/tc.2005.015065
VO 15
IS 4
A1 Sam Pattenden
A1 Temenuga Antova
A1 Manfred Neuberger
A1 Bojidar Nikiforov
A1 Manuela De Sario
A1 Leticia Grize
A1 Joachim Heinrich
A1 Frantiska Hruba
A1 Nicole Janssen
A1 Heike Luttmann-Gibson
A1 Larissa Privalova
A1 Peter Rudnai
A1 Anna Splichalova
A1 Renata Zlotkowska
A1 Tony Fletcher
YR 2006
UL http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/15/4/294.abstract
AB Objectives: Adverse effects have been reported of prenatal and/or postnatal passive exposure to smoking on children’s health. Uncertainties remain about the relative importance of smoking at different periods in the child’s life. We investigate this in a pooled analysis, on 53 879 children from 12 cross-sectional studies—components of the PATY study (Pollution And The Young). Methods: Effects were estimated, within each study, of three exposures: mother smoked during pregnancy, parental smoking in the first two years, current parental smoking. Outcomes were: wheeze, asthma, “woken by wheeze”, bronchitis, nocturnal cough, morning cough, “sensitivity to inhaled allergens” and hay fever. Logistic regressions were used, controlling for individual risk factors and study area. Heterogeneity between study-specific results, and mean effects (allowing for heterogeneity) were estimated using meta-analytical tools. Results: There was strong evidence linking parental smoking to wheeze, asthma, bronchitis and nocturnal cough, with mean odds ratios all around 1.15, with independent effects of prenatal and postnatal exposures for most associations. Conclusions: Adverse effects of both pre- and postnatal parental smoking on children’s respiratory health were confirmed. Asthma was most strongly associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy, but postnatal exposure showed independent associations with a range of other respiratory symptoms. All tobacco smoke exposure has serious consequences for children’s respiratory health and needs to be reduced urgently.