Cigarette smoking and preeclampsia.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and the development of preeclampsia.


METHODS
A case-control study compared the smoking histories of 110 nulliparous preeclamptic women and 115 healthy nulliparas aged 15-35 years who delivered at North Carolina Memorial Hospital.


RESULTS
Unconditioned logistic regression relating smoking during pregnancy to preeclampsia yielded an odds ratio of 0.71 (95% confidence interval 0.33-1.50) when adjusting for working during pregnancy, alcohol use, medication use, contraceptive choices with the father of the index pregnancy, and family history of preeclampsia. There was no evidence of a dose-response effect of reduced risk for heavier smokers.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite major methodologic improvements from previous studies, including rigorous diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia, a negative, non-statistically significant association persisted between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and preeclampsia, similar in magnitude to that of previous reports.
Klonoff-Cohen
H
H
Division of Epidemiology, Community and Family Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.
Edelstein
S
S
Savitz
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*