Impacto do Tabagismo Materno Sobre a Saúde dos Recém-Nascidos de Pelotas - RS

Abstract

Introduction: The struggle against the smoking habit is an increasing concern around the world, mainly during gestation because of its impact in maternal and child health. Despite all efforts, tobaccoism indices are still high. Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of tobaccoism along with pregnancy and its impact on the health of the newborn. Methods: It is a crosssectional study nested in a cohort study, which occurred in all of the Pelotas maternity wards and has monitored babies born between September 2002 and May 2003. Factors related to the outcomes were subjected to bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results: 2741 mothers were included in the study, and 23.5% of them smoked during pregnancy. The variables significantly associated to maternal smoking were: pregnant woman ethnicity, family income, educational level both of the pregnant woman and her partner, multiparity, absence of a partner, and number of prenatal appointments. Women who smoked had a higher risk of 62% to have babies with low birth weight. Conclusion: Although the limitations that these study desing provides, one can conclude that maternal tobaccoism during gestation is a consequence of a myriad of factors, thus being difficult to be limited to one factor of risk only, or else to a causal agent. Its effect on the fetus calls for the need of campaigns at a population level as well as for adjusted prenatal appointments when maternal tabaccoism is present, so that adverse effects of cigarette smoking become less common tobaccoism, maternal smoking, low birth weight, prematurity.