Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2009
Abstract
Objective—The goal was to investigate the association between maternal salivary cotinine levels (SCLs) and pregnancy outcome among African Americans smokers
Methods—In a randomized controlled trial conducted in 2001-2004 in Washington, D.C. 714 women (126 active smokers (18%)) were tested for SCLs at the time of recruitment and later in pregnancy. Sociodemographic health risks and pregnancy outcomes were recorded.
Results—Birth weights were significantly lower for infants born to mothers with baseline SCLs of ≥20 ng/ml compared to/ml (p=0.024), ≥50 ng/ml compared to/ml (p=0.002), ≥100 ng/ml compared to/ml (p=0.002), in bivariate analyses. In linear regression analyses adjusting for sociodemographic and medical factors, SCLs of ≥20 ng/ml were associated with a reduction in birth weight of 88 grams when SCLs were measured at baseline (p=0.042) and 205 grams when SCLs were measured immediately before delivery (p
Conclusions—Elevated SCLs early in pregnancy or before delivery were associated with reductions in birth weight. At any cutoff level, birth weight reduction was more significant for the same SCL measured late in pregnancy. Maintaining lower levels of smoking for women who are unable to quit may be beneficial.
Comments
This article was originally published in Pediatrics, available at doi:10.1542/peds.2008-3784.