CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Volume 14 • Number 3 • Fall 2001

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Prenatal Smoking Databook Points to Need for Better Services

Most smoking-related medical costs on maternal and child health occur during pregnancy and are short-term. However, the neonatal costs associated with maternal smoking, which include low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome, can be long-term. Poor health effects for mothers and their children also result when women relapse into smoking after pregnancy (postpartum recidivism). These problems are compounded by a lack of services. Counseling is the only cessation intervention recommended for pregnant women, and it is not widely available and often is not covered by insurance. 

State health departments and health advocates concerned about the need for increased services will welcome CDC's Prenatal Smoking Databook, a tool for state-by-state analysis of data on smoking during pregnancy. National data are included in separate tables for comparison purposes. Information by state includes 36–38 data elements printed on a 2-page spread. For example, the number of days in neonatal intensive care units is listed for each state and for the nation (for comparison purposes). Because economic data are included, the information can be valuable to anyone seeking funding for tobacco control, explained Carole Rivera, BS, a CDC public health analyst and prenatal smoking cessation team leader in the Division of Reproductive Health.

Data included in the book are birth statistics; prevalence of smoking by age, race, ethnicity, and education; children's tobacco-related illness and death; and smoking-attributable neonatal health care dollars. Because Medicaid pays for 40%–50% of the births within the average state, policy information on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC program) and Title V is included. "Other policy topics are also covered, making it a great tool for lobbyists and tobacco-control advocates," said Ms. Rivera. For each state, readers can find out if Medicare coverage is available for smoking cessation interventions and if the state supports maternal cessation counseling and regular training for physicians. (Twenty-two states do.) 

"A unique feature of this year's Databook, which is the first edition, is that some of the pages will be printed and also available on-line," said Ms. Rivera. Hereafter, all of the pages will be available on-line only. 

One example of how the data can be used is seen in the American Legacy Foundation's plans to include facts from the Databook in a package of briefing materials for gubernatorial spouses. The materials are in support of a national campaign early next year to encourage pregnant women to quit smoking. 

For further information or to obtain a copy of the Databook, contact Brenda Nishimura at 770/488-6312.

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