Frequent prenatal care visits may reduce adolescent cigarette use during pregnancy
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Key takeaways:
- Pre-pregnancy depression was linked to an elevated risk for e-cigarette and cigarette use during late pregnancy among adolescent mothers.
- Frequent prenatal care visits may lower this risk.
BOSTON — Adolescent mothers with pre-pregnancy depression were at higher risk for e-cigarette and cigarette use during late pregnancy vs. those without pre-pregnancy depression, according to data presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting.
However, frequent prenatal care visits may lower this risk, according to researchers.
“Our research suggests that frequent prenatal care may help mitigate the elevated risk of cigarette use associated with pre-pregnancy depression,” Xiaozhong Wen, MD, PhD, associate professor in the division of behavioral medicine and department of pediatrics at Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, told Healio. “This finding highlights the importance of health equity in access to prenatal care.”
To examine the association between pre-pregnancy depression and e-cigarette or cigarette use during late pregnancy, Wen and colleagues analyzed data from 10,044 adolescent mothers aged 10 to 19 years who were enrolled in the U.S. Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System between 2016 and 2021.
Adolescent mothers reported their e-cigarette and cigarette use during the last 3 months of pregnancy, as well as their depression status prior to pregnancy, according to the researchers.
Results of multivariable logistic regression models showed that adolescent mothers with pre-pregnancy depression vs. those who did not have depression prior to pregnancy were at increased risk for using cigarettes exclusively (12.7% vs. 4.8%; confounder-adjusted OR = 1.94; 95% CI, 1.44-2.61) and risk for using both e-cigarettes and cigarettes (3.5% vs. 0.6%; aOR = 4.62; 95% CI, 2.18-9.81) during late pregnancy.
“Unexpectedly, we found that pre-pregnancy depression was not associated with exclusive use of e-cigarettes during pregnancy among adolescents,” Wen said. “In other words, pregnant adolescents with pre-pregnancy depression were as likely to use e-cigarettes exclusively during late pregnancy as pregnant adolescents without pre-pregnancy depression.”
However, the risk for exclusive cigarette use among adolescent mothers associated with pre-pregnancy depression appeared weaker among those who had nine to 11 (aOR = 1.38; 95% CI, 0.82-2.32) or 12 or more (aOR = 1.77; 95% CI, 1.1-2.84) prenatal care visits, whereas it was stronger among those who had eight or fewer visits (aOR = 3.86; 95% CI, 2.23-6.67).
“[In the future,] we plan to explore details on the communication between prenatal care providers and pregnant adolescents, such as mental health counseling and tobacco/nicotine use cessation,” Wen said.
Wen acknowledged several study limitations, including that these are noncausal associations, the self-reported data may be prone to bias and lack of information on the types of prenatal care visits (eg, routine check-ups vs. sick visits).
For more information:
Xiaozhong Wen, MD, PhD, can be reached at xiaozhongwen@hotmail.com.