Does the use of nicotine replacement therapy during pregnancy affect pregnancy outcomes?

Although nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) may assist with smoking cessation, little is known about the safety of NRT use during pregnancy. Our purpose was two-fold: to determine characteristics of women prescribed or recommended NRT during pregnancy and to investigate whether NRT prescription/recommendation was associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes using data from the 2004 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System.

Smoking and NRT referral was self-reported by 5,716 women. Information on pregnancy outcomes was obtained from birth certificates. Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Smokers <35 years of age and of Hispanic, Non-Hispanic Black, and Asian/Pacific Islander race/ethnicity were less likely to be prescribed or recommended NRT during pregnancy. After adjustment for age, marital status, education, and race/ethnicity, women recommended NRT had twice the risk of low birthweight as compared to nonsmokers (OR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.10, 3.46) while smokers had 1.31 times the risk of low birthweight (95% CI: 0.92, 1.87). Results for preterm birth were similar after adjustment for the same confounding variables (NRT: OR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.14, 3.63 and smoking: OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 0.74, 1.61).

Risks of low birthweight and preterm birth were highest for women prescribed or recommended NRT. These findings may be related to frequency of maternal smoking. While heavier smokers may be more likely to be recommended NRT, they also may have the most difficulty with cessation. Greater efforts should be made to ensure that these women do successfully cease smoking.