Smoking ban and small-for-gestational age births in Ireland
Zubair Kabir, Sean Daly, Vanessa Clarke, Sheila Keogan, Luke Clancy, Zubair Kabir, Sean Daly, Vanessa Clarke, Sheila Keogan, Luke Clancy
Abstract
Background: Ireland introduced a comprehensive workplace smoke-free legislation in March, 2004. Smoking-related adverse birth outcomes have both health care and societal cost implications. The main aim of this study was to determine the impact of the Irish smoke-free legislation on small-for-gestationa- age (SGA) births.
Methods and findings: We developed a population-based birthweight (BW) percentile curve based on a recent study to compute SGA (BW <5(th) percentile) and very SGA (vSGA - BW<3(rd) percentile) for each gestational week. Monthly births born between January 1999 and December 2008 were analyzed linking with monthly maternal smoking rates from a large referral maternity university hospital. We ran individual control and CUSUM charts, with bootstrap simulations, to pinpoint the breakpoint for the impact of ban implementation ( = April 2004). Monthly SGA rates (%) before and after April 2004 was considered pre and post ban period births, respectively. Autocorrelation was tested using Durbin Watson (DW) statistic. Mixed models using a random intercept and a fixed effect were employed using SAS (v 9.2). A total of 588,997 singleton live-births born between January 1999 and December 2008 were analyzed. vSGA and SGA monthly rates declined from an average of 4.7% to 4.3% and from 6.9% to 6.6% before and after April 2004, respectively. No auto-correlation was detected (DW = ~2). Adjusted mixed models indicated a significant decline in both vSGA and SGA rates immediately after the ban [(-5.3%; 95% CI -5.43% to -5.17%, p<0.0001) and (-0.45%; 95% CI: -0.7% to -0.19%, p<0.0007)], respectively. Significant gradual effects continued post the ban periods for vSGA and SGA rates, namely, -0.6% (p<0.0001) and -0.02% (p<0.0001), respectively.
Conclusions: A significant reduction in small-for-gestational birth rates both immediately and sustained over the post-ban period, reinforces the mounting evidence of the positive health effect of a successful comprehensive smoke-free legislation in a vulnerable population group as pregnant women.
Conflict of interest statement
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Figures
References
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (2004) IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans: Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking. Vol 83. Lyon: IARC.
- Salmasi G, Grady R, Jones J, McDonald SD (2010) Knowledge Synthesis Group (2010) Environmental tobacco smoke exposure and perinatal outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analyses. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 89: 423–41.
- Cnattingius S (2005) The epidemiology of smoking during pregnancy: smoking prevalence, maternal characteristics, and pregnancy outcomes. Nicotine Tob Res Suppl 2: S125–40.
- Chiolero A, Bovet P, Paccaud F (2005) Association between maternal smoking and low birth weight in Switzerland: the EDEN study. Swiss Med Wkly 135: 525–30.
- Vielwerth SE, Jensen RB, Larsen T, Greisen G (2007) The impact of maternal smoking on fetal and infant growth. Early Hum Dev 83: 491–5.
- Kabir Z, Clarke V, Conroy R, McNamee E, Daly S, et al. (2009) Low birthweight and preterm birth rates 1 year before and after the Irish workplace smoking ban. BJOG 116: 1782–7.
- Mackay DF, Nelson SM, Haw SJ, Pell JP (2012) Impact of Scotland’s smoke-free legislation on pregnancy complications: retrospective cohort study. PLoS Med e1001175.
- Page RL 2nd, Slejko JF, Libby AM (2012) A citywide smoking ban reduced maternal smoking and risk for preterm births: a Colorado natural experiment. J Women’s Health 21: 621–7.
- Mikolajczyk RT, Zhang J, Betran AP, Souza JP, Mori R, et al. (2011) A global reference for fetal-weight and birthweight percentiles. Lancet 377: 1855–61.
- Khashan AS, Baker PN, Kenny LC (2010) Preterm birth and reduced birthweight in first and second teenage pregnancies: a register-based cohort study.BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 10: 36.
- Gardosi J, Chang A, Kalyan B, Sahota D, Symonds EM (1992) Customised antenatal growth charts. Lancet 339: 283–7.
- Goodman P, Agnew M, McCaffrey M, Paul G, Clancy L (2007) Effects of the Irish smoking ban on respiratory health of bar workers and air quality in Dublin pubs. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 175: 840–5.
- Pell JP, Haw S, Cobbe S, Newby DE, Pell AC, et al. (2008) Smoke-free legislation and hospitalizations for acute coronary syndrome. N Eng J Med 359: 482–91.
- Bonellie S, Chalmers J, Gray R, Greer I, Jarvis S, et al. (2008) Centile charts for birthweight for gestational age for Scottish singleton births. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 8: 5.
- Donnelly JC, Cooley SM, Walsh TA, Sarkar R, Durnea U, et al. (2008) Illegal drug use, smoking and alcohol consumption in a low-risk Irish primigravid population. J Perinat Med 36: 70–2.
- McDonnell-Naughton M, McGarvey C, O’Regan M, Matthews T (2012) Maternal smoking and alcohol consumption during pregnancy as risk factors for sudden death. Ir Med J 105: 105–8.
- Ashford KB, Hahn E, Hall L, Rayens MK, Noland M, et al. (2010) Measuring prenatal secondhand smoke exposure in mother-baby couplets. Nicotine Tob Res 12: 127–35.
- Shipton D, Tappin DM, Vadiveloo T, Crossley JA, Aitken DA, et al. (2009) Reliability of self reported smoking status by pregnant women for estimating smoking prevalence: a retrospective cross-sectional study. BMJ 339: b4347.
- El-Mohandes AA, Kiely M, Blake SM, Gantz MG, El-Khorazaty MN (2010) An intervention to reduce environmental tobacco smoke exposure improves pregnancy outcomes. Pediatrics 125: 721–8.
- Pfarrer C, Macara L, Leiser R, Kingdom J (1999) Adaptive angiogenesis in placentas of heavy smokers. Lancet 354: 303.
- Mook-Kanamori DO, Steegers EA, Ellers PH, Raat H, Hofman A, et al. (2010) Risk factors and outcomes associated with first-trimester fetal growth restriction. JAMA 303: 527–34.
- Lieberman E, Gremy I, Lang JM, Cohen AP (1994) Low birthweight at term and the timing of fetal exposure to maternal smoking. Am J Public Health 84: 1127–31.
- Reeves S, Bernstein I (2008) Effects of maternal tobacco-smoke exposure on fetal growth and neonatal size. Expert Rev Obstet Gynecol 3: 719–30.
- Kabir Z, Clancy L (2012) Smoking ban and pregnancy complications: new evidence. J Women’s Health 21: 616–8.
- Kabir Z, Manning PJ, Holohan J, Goodman PG, Clancy L (2010) Active smoking and second-hand-smoke exposure at home among Irish children, 1995–2007. Arch Dis Child 95: 42–5.
- Mons U, Nagelhout GE, Allwright S, Guignard R, van den Putte B, et al.. (2012) Impact of national smoke-free legislation on home smoking bans: findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project Europe Surveys. Tob Control Feb 13 (ahead of print).
- Allwright S, Paul G, Greiner B, Mullally BJ, Pursell L, et al. (2005) Legislation for smoke-free workplaces and health of bar workers in Ireland: before and after study. BMJ 331: 1117.
Source: PubMed