title: Parental smoking during pregnancy shortens offspring's legs.
abstract: One of the most severe detrimental environmental factors acting during pregnancy is foetal smoke exposure. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of maternal, paternal and parental smoking during pregnancy on relative leg length in 7- to 10-year-old children. The research conducted in the years 2001-2002 included 978 term-born children, 348 boys and 630 girls, at the age of 7-10 years. Information concerning the birth weight of a child was obtained from the health records of the women. Information about the mother's and the father's smoking habits during pregnancy and about the mothers' education level was obtained from a questionnaire. The influence of parental smoking on relative leg length, controlled for age, sex, birth weight and the mother's education, as a proxy measure of socioeconomic status, and controlled for an interaction between sex and birth weight, was assessed by an analysis of covariance, where relative leg length was the dependent variable, smoking and sex were the independent variables, and birth weight as well as the mother's education were the covariates. Three separate analyses were run for the three models of smoking habits during pregnancy: the mother's smoking, the father's smoking and both parents' smoking. Only both parents' smoking showed a significant effect on relative leg length of offspring. It is probable that foetal hypoxia caused by carbon monoxide contained in smoke decelerated the growth of the long bones of foetuses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Łódź, 90-237 Łódź, Poland; School of Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Żądzińska
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, 50-449 Wroclaw, Poland. Electronic address: skoziel@antropologia.pan.pl.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kozieł
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Łódź, 90-237 Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borowska-Strugińska
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Łódź, 90-237 Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rosset
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Łódź, 90-237 Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sitek
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Łódź, 90-237 Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lorkiewicz
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000254:growth & development / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D010290:Parents; D010332:Paternal Behavior; D011044:Poland; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution