Passive tobacco smoke exposure and children’s health outcomes: a preliminary analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48797/sl.2024.200Keywords:
PosterAbstract
Background: Children’s exposure to Passive Tobacco Smoke (PTS) in utero and during infancy can increase the risk of childhood respiratory diseases and infections (e.g., otitis) [1-3]. Objective: This study explores the association between children’s exposure to PTS in utero (maternal, frequent smoking family member during pregnancy), up to one year, and current maternal smoke exposure with, to date, and the first two years of life health conditions. Methods: Data were collected from 192 parents of children (5-10 years) using a structured survey. Apart from PTS exposure data, it collected children’s early health outcomes (developed in the first two years of life) including bronchitis, asthmatic bronchitis, and bronchiolitis, while to date conditions included doctor-diagnosed asthma, eczema, and otitis. Descriptive and univariate analyses were performed using SPSS v.29, with results presented through odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results: In utero, 12.3% of children were exposed to maternal tobacco and 18.8% to PTS from another family member. Twenty-two percent were exposed to PTS during their first year of life, and 17.5% had currently smoking mothers. Among others, PTS exposure in utero from maternal smoking was associated with 1.32 and 1.10 times higher odds of bronchitis and otitis, respectively with no statistical significance. Children exposed to another smoking family member had 6.53 times significantly higher odds of asthmatic bronchitis than others (p<0.05) and 1.49 times higher odds of asthma (p>0.05). PTS exposure during the first year of life was associated with 1.80 and 2.14 times higher odds of bronchiolitis and eczema, while children with currently smoking mothers had 1.72 and 1.21 times greater odds of bronchitis and eczema, respectively (p>0.05). Conclusions: Although further investigations with a larger sample size are imperative to validate these associations, these preliminary findings reinforce the harmful effects of children's PTS exposure on their health.
References
1. Amani, S.; Yarmohammadi, P. Study of effect of household parental smoking on development of acute otitis media in children under 12 years. Global journal of health science (2016) 8(5), p. 81.
2. Zhuge, Y.; Qian, H.; Zheng, X.; Huang, C.; Zhang, Y.; Li, B.; Zhao, Z.; Deng, Q.; Yang, X.; Sun, Y.; Zhang, X.; Sundell, J. Effects of parental smoking and indoor tobacco smoke exposure on respiratory outcomes in children. Sci Rep (2020) 10(1), 4311.
3. Braun, M.; Klingelhöfer, D.; Oremek, G.M.; Quarcoo, D.; Groneberg, D.A. Influence of second-hand smoke and prenatal tobacco smoke exposure on biomarkers, genetics and physiological processes in children—An overview in research insights of the last few years. Int J Environ Res Public Health (2020) 17(9), 3212.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Ana Margarida Faria, Georges Hatem, Mariana Bessa Pinto, João Paulo Teixeira, Klara Slezakova, Maria do Carmo Pereira, Carla Costa, Joana Madureira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
In Scientific Letters, articles are published under a CC-BY license (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License), the most open license available. The users can share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially), as long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made (read the full text of the license terms and conditions of use).
The author is the owner of the copyright.
