Demographic and psychosocial profile of smoking during pregnancy among Dominican Republic women

Background: Factors that influence maternal smoking during pregnancy and its effects on the physical, behavioral and cognitive development of children are well analyzed/researched in the developed world. As the tobacco epidemic expands to include low to middle income countries, additional research is warranted to understand tobacco attitudes and practices among their populations.

Methods: Two surveys were conducted. The Community Survey, included 1052 community members from 6 disenfranchised communities in the DR (2 rural; 2 peri-urban; 2 urban). The Smoker Cohort Survey included 659 smokers randomly selected from households with multiple adult smokers.

Results: Preliminary analyses of the community survey indicated that 92.9% of interviewed females had been pregnant; of these 22.0% reported smoking during a prior or current pregnancy; 45.7% reported being advised by a health care provider to quit during pregnancy; 33.9% stopped smoking because of pregnancy and 77.2% reported frequent exposure to Secondhand Smoke. In the Smoker Cohort, 42.49% were female and 93.0% had experienced a pregnancy; 88.4% reported smoking daily and 72.1% smoked their first cigarette within the first 30 minutes of waking-up; 76.6% had made a serious attempt to quit. Data will be presented on tobacco use and SHS exposure during pregnancy for both the community sample and the smokers' cohort.

Conclusions: While smoking among men is often the first priority in tobacco control initiatives, these data indicate that smoking among women is a significant problem that should not be overlooked. Data obtained clearly support the need for tobacco intervention with a focus targeting pregnant females.