TY  - JOUR
A1  - Robin, Koger
A1  - Katharina, Syböck
A1  - Emily, Weinelt
A1  - Beda, Hartmann
A1  - Kirchengast, Sylvia
ED  - Scheffler, Christiane
ED  - Koziel, Slawomir
ED  - Hermanussen, Michael
ED  - Bogin, Barry
T1  - Advanced maternal age and nicotine consumption during pregnancy
BT  - Additive effects on new-born parameters
T2  - Human Biology and Public Health
N2  - Background

Nicotine consumption during pregnancy and advanced maternal age are well known independent risk factors for poor pregnancy outcome and therefore serious public health problems.

Objectives

Considering the ongoing trend of delaying childbirth in our society, this study investigates potential additive effects of nicotine consumption during pregnancy and advanced maternal age on foetal growth.

Sample and Methods

In a medical record-based study, we analysed the impact of maternal age and smoking behaviour before and during pregnancy on newborn size among 4142 singleton births that took place in Vienna, Austria between 1990 and 1995.

Results

Birth weight (H=82.176, p<0.001), birth length (H=91.525, p<0.001) and head circumference (H=42.097, p<0.001) differed significantly according to maternal smoking behaviour. For birth weight, the adjusted mean differences between smokers and non-smokers increased from 101.8g for the < 18-year-old mothers to 254.8g for >35 year olds, with the respective values for birth length being 0.6 cm to 0.7cm, for head circumference from 0.3 cm to 0.6 cm.

Conclusion

Increasing maternal age amplified the negative effects of smoking during pregnancy on newborn parameters. Our findings identify older smoking mothers as a high-risk group which should be of special interest for public health systems.
KW  - advanced maternal age at first birth
KW  - maternal nicotine consumption
KW  - foetal growth
KW  - newborn size
KW  - birthweight
KW  - smoking
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph.v1.6
SN  - 2748-9957
VL  - 2021
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 19
PB  - Universitätsverlag Potsdam
CY  - Potsdam
ER  -