Prenatal tobacco exposure and cortisol levels in infants of teen mothers.
prenatal tobacco exposure (PTE) is an important public health concern for the offspring of teen mothers. We examined whether PTE is associated with baseline cortisol levels in four-month-old infants of teenage mothers.



we assessed salivary cortisol levels of 212 infants. PTE was measured by using self-reports of cigarette smoking during pregnancy. We used a propensity scores matching analysis to compare infants with PTE and those without.



of 212 mothers, 151 smoked during pregnancy. However, there was no association between PTE and infant cortisol levels.



we could not support a relation between PTE and cortisol levels in a sample of four-month-old infants of teenage mothers.
Azar
Rima
R
Psychobiology of Stress and Health Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. razar@mta.ca
Paquette
Daniel
D
Stewart
Donna E
DE
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*
D006854:Hydrocortisone