title: Parental smoking and children's respiratory health: independent effects of prenatal and postnatal exposure.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adverse effects have been reported of prenatal and/or postnatal passive exposure to smoking on children's health. Uncertainties remain about the relative importance of smoking at different periods in the child's life. We investigate this in a pooled analysis, on 53,879 children from 12 cross-sectional studies--components of the PATY study (Pollution And The Young).
  
  
  METHODS
  Effects were estimated, within each study, of three exposures: mother smoked during pregnancy, parental smoking in the first two years, current parental smoking. Outcomes were: wheeze, asthma, "woken by wheeze", bronchitis, nocturnal cough, morning cough, "sensitivity to inhaled allergens" and hay fever. Logistic regressions were used, controlling for individual risk factors and study area. Heterogeneity between study-specific results, and mean effects (allowing for heterogeneity) were estimated using meta-analytical tools.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was strong evidence linking parental smoking to wheeze, asthma, bronchitis and nocturnal cough, with mean odds ratios all around 1.15, with independent effects of prenatal and postnatal exposures for most associations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adverse effects of both pre- and postnatal parental smoking on children's respiratory health were confirmed. Asthma was most strongly associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy, but postnatal exposure showed independent associations with a range of other respiratory symptoms. All tobacco smoke exposure has serious consequences for children's respiratory health and needs to be reduced urgently.
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pattenden
authors.forename: Temenuga
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Antova
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neuberger
authors.forename: Bojidar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nikiforov
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Sario
authors.forename: Leticia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grize
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.forename: Frantiska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hruba
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Janssen
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luttmann-Gibson
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Privalova
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rudnai
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Splichalova
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zlotkowska
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fletcher
mesh_terms: D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D003371:Cough / Q000209:etiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D015995:Prevalence; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000209:etiology; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution