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About Research studies

A new study has revealed that a woman who stays around people who are smoking risks her unborn child’s health in that such a child could experience behavioral problems in future.

The study indicated that kids whose mothers exposed them selves to second hand cigarette smoke for at least half an hour per day were highly likely to suffer from aggression as well as attention problems at a tender age of 5. This likelihood was found to be twice as much compared to kids whose mothers were not exposed to second hand cigarette smoke.

This is among the very first research studies linking a mother’s second hand smoking exposure to behavioral problems of a child.

Professor Jianghong of China led a research study of over 600 mothers paired with their children in China. The research team requested mothers to remember how often they had exposure to second hand smoking while pregnant. They also assessed behavioral problems in kids of ages five and six using a standard behavioral scale.

Heather Volk who is an epidemiologist expressed positive sentiment on the study due to the fact that the research was conducted in a country where the rates of women smokers were quite low yet exposure to passive smoking was high. Heather Volk was however not involved in the research.

Research statistics and results

About 37% of the mothers who were partisan to the study reported to have been exposed to passive smoking while pregnant. The results revealed that about 25% of the kids whose mothers had been exposed to second hand/passive smoking exhibited aggression as well as attention problems, while just 16% of the kids whose mothers had not been exposed exhibited behavioral problems.

In China, smoking by ladies is highly considered as disgraceful and therefore the research team did not ask the women partisan to the study on whether they had been smoking while pregnant. This is despite the fact that the researchers acknowledged that it could have been possible that a few women may have actually smoked during pregnancy. A research conducted previously approximated that over 98% of Chinese women were not smokers.

Over 75% of fathers partisan to the study who had quit smoking at home during their wives’ pregnancy resumed their smoking habits immediately their wives delivered.

The research never factored in the effects of exposure to passive smoke after a baby’s birth although other research studies have proven that smoking near a newly born child has detrimental health effects on a child.

Professor Kim Yolton a highly respected pediatrician said that the postnatal period is highly critical for proper cognitive growth and development of the child.

Earlier studies have indicated that kids given birth by mothers who actively smoked while pregnant might be at high risk of experiencing behavioral problems like ADHD and frequent aggression. Worse still the child could grow to exhibit criminal behaviors especially during the teenage years and during early adult hood.

It is therefore extremely important that pregnant mothers do not smoke or be around some one smoking in order to protect their unborn kids.