HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2007.117887v1 AJPH.2007.117887v2 98/10/1833    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (2) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bloch, M. Articles by Goldenberg, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bloch, M. Articles by Goldenberg, R. Related Collections Global Health Pregnancy Women's Health Tobacco Control Secondhand Smoke

Michele Bloch, MD, PhD, Fernando Althabe, MD, MSc, Marie Onyamboko, MD, MPH, Christine Kaseba-Sata, MBChB, DGO, MRCOG, Eduardo E. Castilla, MD, PhD, Salvio Freire, MD, Ana L. Garces, MD, MPH, Sailajanandan Parida, MD, Shivaprasad S. Goudar, MD, MHPE, Muhammad Masood Kadir, MBBS, MPH, FCPS, Norman Goco, MHS, Jutta Thornberry, BA, Magdalena Daniels, AD, Janet Bartz, MS, Tyler Hartwell, PhD, Nancy Moss, PhD and Robert Goldenberg, MD

At the time of the study, Michele Bloch was with the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Nancy Moss was with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda. Fernando Althabe is with the Hospital de Clinicas, Montevideo, Uruguay. Marie Onyamboko is with the Kinshasa School of Public Health, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Christine Kaseba-Sata is with the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia. Eduardo E. Castilla is with the Estudio Colaborativo Latinoamericano de Malformaciones Congenitas (Latin-American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Salvio Freire is with the Hospital das Clinicas, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife-Pernambuco, Brazil. Ana L. Garces is with the Multidisciplinary Health Institute, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Sailajanandan Parida is with the Sriram Chandra Bhanj Medical College, Cuttack, India. Shivaprasad S. Goudar is with the Karnatak Lingayat Education Society's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum, India. Muhammad Masood Kadir is with the Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. Norman Goco, Jutta Thornberry, Magdalena Daniels, Janet Bartz, and Tyler Hartwell are with Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, NC. Robert Goldenberg is with Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Michele Bloch, Tobacco Control Research Branch, National Cancer Institute, Executive Plaza North, Room 4038, 6130 Executive Blvd, MSC 7337, Bethesda, MD 20892-7337 (email: blochm{at}mail.nih.gov).

Objectives. We examined pregnant women's use of cigarettes and other tobacco products and the exposure of pregnant women and their young children to secondhand smoke (SHS) in 9 nations in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Methods. Face-to-face surveys were administered to 7961 pregnant women (more than 700 per site) between October 2004 and September 2005.

Results. At all Latin American sites, pregnant women commonly reported that they had ever tried cigarette smoking (range: 78.3% [Uruguay] to 35.0% [Guatemala]). The highest levels of current smoking were found in Uruguay (18.3%), Argentina (10.3%), and Brazil (6.1%). Experimentation with smokeless tobacco occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and India; one third of all respondents in Orissa, India, were current smokeless tobacco users. SHS exposure was common: between 91.6% (Pakistan) and 17.1% (Democratic Republic of the Congo) of pregnant women reported that smoking was permitted in their home.

Conclusions. Pregnant women's tobacco use and SHS exposure are current or emerging problems in several low- and middle-income nations, jeopardizing ongoing efforts to improve maternal and child health.