Nov 21 (HeartCenterOnline) - Children of mothers who smoked at least one pack of cigarettes during pregnancy have an increased risk of cigarette addiction as adults. This finding is published in the November 2003 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 165,000 women die in the United States due to tobacco use each year. Research has shown that smoking is particularly harmful to the cardiovascular health of women, who are at significantly greater risk of having a heart attack and stroke than women who do not smoke. Furthermore, female smokers face very high risks of developing respiratory diseases that have no cure (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), lung cancer and other smoking related diseases. In fact, lung cancer claims more female lives than breast cancer does.

There are over 2,000 toxins in tobacco smoke, all of which are passed from pregnant mothers through the umbilical cord to the developing baby. These poisonous chemicals pose unique and real threats to the unborn child. Smoking during pregnancy is associated with low birth weight, premature delivery, placenta previa (a complication that could cause bleeding and become a medical emergency), miscarriage and post-delivery death. It has also been associated with a 50 to 70 percent higher chance of delivering babies with a cleft lip or palate, and this risk is believed to increase with the number of cigarettes smoked per day. In addition previous research showed that children of women who smoked during pregnancy may be more likely to experiment with tobacco at an early age.

In the current study, Dr. Stephen L. Buka and colleagues sought to determine if smoking during pregnancy is linked to an increased risk of "nicotine dependence" among adult offspring.

The researchers analyzed data taken from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project, using records of 1,248 offspring taken from pregnancy to adulthood. During each prenatal visit, maternal smoking habits were recorded. The average age of the offspring when interviewed about their smoking habits was 29.

Results showed that the offspring of mothers "who reported smoking a pack or more of cigarettes during their pregnancy during their pregnancy" had a significantly higher likelihood of being addicted to cigarettes, as compared to offspring of mothers who reported never smoking during pregnancy. Moreover, "the odds of progressing from smoking to nicotine dependence were almost twice as great for offspring whose mothers smoked heavily during pregnancy," report the researchers.

It was concluded that maternal smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for cigarette addiction in adult offspring.

To learn more about this topic, visit HeartCenterOnline's Smoking Cessation Center.

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