CDC: One in 14 women smoke during pregnancy

Slightly more than 7 percent of all women who gave birth in 2016 smoked during their gestation, according to a data brief just released from the CDC.

“This report presents the first national data on maternal smoking during pregnancy based on the 2003 birth certificate revision ... of the U.S. Standard Certificate of Live Birth ... [and] is the first for which this information is available for all states and the District of Columbia,” Patrick Drake, MS, division of vital statistics, CDC, and colleagues wrote.

The researchers’ findings varied depending on controllable and uncontrollable factors and include:

7.2% of all women who gave birth smoked cigarettes while pregnant, with the highest occurrence in West Virginia (25.1%).
16.7% of non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native women smoked tobacco during gestation, the most of any group by race and Hispanic origin; the next highest was white (10.5%), while the lowest was Asian women (0.6%).
12.2% of women with a GED or high school diploma smoked while pregnant, the highest percentage among the different educational groups studied; women with a bachelor’s degree or higher had a prevalence of 1%.
10.7% of women aged 20 to 24 years smoked cigarettes during gestation, the most of any age group studied.

Slightly more than 7 percent of all women who gave birth in 2016 smoked during their gestation, according to a data brief just released from the CDC. Source: Shutterstock.

“Identifying maternal characteristics linked with smoking during pregnancy can help inform the development of strategies to reduce the prevalence of maternal smoking and increase smoking cessation during pregnancy in the United States,” Drake and colleagues wrote. – by Janel Miller

References: National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief Number 305, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db305.htm February 2018.

Disclosure: Healio Family Medicine was unable to determine the authors’ relevant financial disclosures prior to publication.