[Tobacco smoking during pregnancy in Spain: an analysis according to years, autonomous communities and maternal...

The information about the convenience of non-smoking during pregnancy has increased in recent years. For this reason, we studied weather there has been any variation in smoking habits by pregnant women in Spain.

We used data from 31,056 mothers of infants without congenital defects, from all the Spanish Autonomic Regions. These data had been collected with the same methodology all over the country. The evolution of maternal smoking habit was analyzed by years, Autonomic Regions and maternal characteristics.

During the last years of the study (1995-2002), 30.31% of mothers smoked during pregnancy, with variations among different ethnic groups. It was observed a secular increase in the prevalence of smoker mothers from 1978 to 1991, which was further stable in about 27-28%. There was no secular decrease in the analyses by maternal age, number of cigarettes, and Autonomic Regions. Only smoker mothers with higher educational levels diminished smoking in 1993, with it being stable in about 23%. Mothers younger than 25 years were the heaviest smokers in all the years of the study. We confirmed a close relationship between tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs consumption.

Our data indicate that the prevalence of women smoking during pregnancy has not diminished over the years or by Autonomic Regions, although 19.19% of smoker pregnant women quit smoking during the first months of pregnancy. Moreover, the heaviest smoker mothers were the youngest ones in all the years of the study. These results show the need to increase the information for women so that they quit smoking before pregnancy.