Prevalance of smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding and socioeconomical determinants

Introduction and Objective:
Smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding is an important factor of mortality and morbidity for newborns. Turkey has national data on the prevalance of smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding however there is no data on the characteristics of the high risk population. This study aimed to evaluate the socioeconomical determinants effecting prevalance of smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

 Method:
Cross sectional study was conducted in Burhaniye Balikesir. Target population was 756 women with children under 5. The sample size was 306 women. (50% prevalance, CI 95%, SE 5%). Face-to-face interviews were conducted between January and March 2008 at the home of the participants with a coverage rate of 83,7% (n=256). The independent variables were educational level, poverty, perceived income, social class, migration, partners smoking status. Social class was categorized based on a class scheme developed by Boratav. Poverty was evaluated by determining a poverty threshold for each household according to the limits announced by Turkish Statistical Institute. Chi-square test, Student’s t-test were used.
Results and  Conclusions:
The 22.7% of the participants smoked during pregnancy and 74.1% of them smoked daily. The mean number of cigarettes per day was (9.22±10.3) (median=5). 23.6% of mothers smoked during breastfeeding. 96.2% of them smoked daily. The mean number of cigarettes per day was (8.04±8.4) (median=5).
Low educated parents, migrants, women with urban birthplace, young mothers (25 and below) and women whose partners smoked had significantly higher rates of smoking during pregnancy (p<0,05). Low income perception, unemployment, low social class, migration were found significantly associated with daily smoking (p<0.05). Smoking during pregnancy was positively correlated with smoking during breastfeeding. This relation was strong and statistically significant (R:0,771 p<0.05). The women who smoked during pregnancy and breastfeeding period had children with significantly higher physician diagnosed upper and lower respiratory enfection prevalance than to non-smoker mothers’ children.