Women who spontaneously quit smoking in early pregnancy.
Spontaneous quitters are prepregnancy smokers who quit by the time of their first antenatal visit. We recruited 192 self-declared spontaneous quitters and 407 smokers at their first visit to the antenatal clinic at the Royal Women's Hospital during April, 1994-May, 1995. Spontaneous quitters made up 23% of prepregnancy smokers. Information about self-declared quitters and smokers was collected by self-completed questionnaires. Urine samples collected at the first visit and in late pregnancy were assayed for cotinine to validate smoking status. A cut-off urinary concentration of > or = 653 nmol/L cotinine was used to determine active smoking. At the first visit, 20% of the self-declared spontaneous quitters were smoking and by late pregnancy, regardless of their initial biochemically verified status, 27% were smoking. Spontaneous quitters were different from women who said they were still smoking at their first antenatal visit, in a range of demographic variables and measures of addictive behaviour.
Panjari
M
M
Department of Perinatal Medicine, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria.
Bell
R J
RJ
Astbury
J
J
Bishop
S M
SM
Dalais
F
F
Rice
G E
GE
D000328:Adult; D003367:Cotinine / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011264:Pregnancy Trimesters; D011295:Prenatal Care; D012008:Recurrence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology
D003367:Cotinine