Educational disadvantage and cigarette smoking during pregnancy.
This study examined the influence of education on smoking status in a cohort (n=316) of pregnant women who were smokers at the time they learned of the current pregnancy. Subjects were participants in clinical trials examining the efficacy of monetary-based incentives for smoking-cessation and relapse prevention. In multivariate analyses, educational achievement was a robust predictor of smoking status upon entering prenatal care, of achieving abstinence antepartum among those still smoking at entry into prenatal care, and of smoking status at 6-month postpartum in the entire cohort and the subsample who received smoking-cessation treatment. In addition to educational attainment, other predictors of smoking status included smoking-related characteristics (e.g., number of cigarettes/day smoked pre-pregnancy), treatment, maternal age, and stress ratings. We suggest that strategies to increase educational attainment be included with more conventional tobacco-control policies in efforts to reduce smoking among girls and young women.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05401, USA. stephen.higgins@uvm.edu
Stephen T
ST
Higgins
Sarah H
SH
Heil
Gary J
GJ
Badger
Joan M
JM
Skelly
Laura J
LJ
Solomon
Ira M
IM
Bernstein
D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000191:economics; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D055815:Young Adult