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Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy
Increases Children's Risk for Mental Retardation
In the April 1996 issue of PEDIATRICS article "The
relationship between idiopathic mental retardation and maternal smoking during
pregnancy" researchers found that women who smoked were 50 percent more likely to
have a child with mental retardation of unknown etiology (an IQ of 70 or less) than were
nonsmoking women.
- In the study, researchers from Emory University, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Battelle Centers for Public Health
Research and Evaluation in Atlanta interviewed 221 mothers of children with mental
retardation of unknown etiology and 400 mothers of children without mental retardation
regarding cigarette use during their pregnancies.
- The study found that 35 percent of mothers of children with mental
retardation had smoked during pregnancy while 24 percent of mothers of children without
mental retardation had smoked during pregnancy.
- The researchers controlled for sex, maternal age, race, economic status,
parity, maternal education, and alcohol use during pregnancy.
- The researchers conclude that IF their findings do represent a causal
relationship, then approximately 35 percent of the cases of otherwise, unexplained mental
retardation occurring in children of women who smoke might be attributed to maternal
smoking during pregnancy.
- Previous studies of the relationship between maternal smoking and children's
cognitive functioning have produced conflicting findings.
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