title: Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and cognitive performance in adolescence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The incidence of cigarette smoking during pregnancy remains high. Maternal smoking during pregnancy is known to be associated with cognitive and behavioural sequelae in childhood and adolescence. We assessed the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and cognitive abilities in adolescent offspring (n = 503, 12- to 18-years old) using an extensive 6-h battery of tests.
  
  
  METHODS
  Non-exposed adolescents (controls) were matched to exposed adolescents (cases) by maternal education and school attended. Cognitive abilities were evaluated using a neuropsychological battery consisting of 33 tasks measuring verbal abilities, visuo-spatial skills, verbal and visual memory, processing speed, resistance to interference and motor dexterity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found no differences between cases and controls in any of the cognitive domains whether potential confounders were included in the model or not. In addition to maternal smoking during pregnancy, we also evaluated the effect of sex and age on the various cognitive abilities in this large adolescent sample and found that most of the abilities continue to improve during adolescence to the same extent in girls and boys, with several age-independent sex differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found no effect of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy on cognitive abilities of the adolescent offspring when matching cases and controls by maternal education, the most common confounder of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: Brain and Body Centre, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kafouri
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perron
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Richer
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Séguin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Veillette
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pausova
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paus
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011792:Quebec / Q000453:epidemiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*