Children of women who smoked during pregnancy have a lower immunity and are more likely to suffer from various infections and death from them, according to research reported by the EurekAlert website.
Researchers from the University of Washington (USA) and the Giesel School of Medicine came to such conclusions after analyzing the data collected in total among over 100 people. children born in Washington state between 1987 and 2004.
It turned out that the children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy were 50 percent. more likely to be hospitalized or killed due to various infectious diseases compared to children of nonsmokers. The risk of hospitalization due to respiratory infections was 69%. higher for children of mothers who smoke during pregnancy, and due to other infections – by 27 percent. higher.
This applied even to babies born on time and with normal body weight. The only thing that researchers didn’t find was a link between cigarette smoking and a higher risk of death from infection in babies born underweight.
It has been known for a long time that children born to women who smoked during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from serious health problems related to, inter alia, with low birth weight, premature birth and poorer lung development, comments the lead author of the study, Abigail Halperin.
Until now, respiratory infections have been considered the main threat to this group of children, the researcher reminds. However, her team’s work shows that babies exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb have a much higher risk of hospitalization and death from a range of infectious diseases.
According to Dr. Halperin, this means that exposure to tobacco smoke in utero impairs the functioning of the entire immune system of the baby, not just that associated with the mucosa of the respiratory system.
Importantly, the latest study also showed that when women reduce the number of cigarettes smoked during pregnancy or quit smoking during pregnancy, the risk of infectious diseases in their babies decreases significantly. Advising pregnant women to reduce smoking if they are unable to stop smoking altogether may help to reduce hospitalization and deaths among young children, the researcher says.
The results of Dr. Halperin’s team have been published in the journal Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and will be presented on October 27 at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, USA. (PAP)