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Prenatal smoking and the risk of early childhood caries: A prospective cohort study
Aderonke A Akinkugbe1,2, Tegwyn H Brickhouse1,2, Marcelle M Nascimento3
1Department of Dental Public Health and Policy, School of Dentistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States.
Introduction:
Dental caries is a chronic complex disease of multifactorial etiology that affects a quarter of U.S. children. This study evaluated the association between prenatal smoking and offspring caries experience and used a negative control exposure analysis to assess if the association is causal.
Methods:
Data from 1429 mother-offspring participants of the 1991/92 Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children conducted in Bristol, England were analyzed. Prenatal smoking (yes v. no) and quantity smoked (none,
Results:
Overall, 22% smoked during pregnancy while 36% of partners smoked. The adjusted hazard odds of first occurrence of caries experience in the offsprings of prenatal smokers compared to the offsprings of non-smokers was 1.42 (95% CI: 1.08, 1.86). Relative to non-smoking, smoking
Conclusions:
Prenatal and partner smoking appear associated with greater offspring caries experience. The positive association with partner smoking suggests either a shared genetic predisposition or unmeasured common environmental factors with the mother as opposed to a direct biological effect of the intrauterine environment.
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