New research has shown that the negative impacts of smoking during pregnancy can last well into children’s future.
Prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke is already known to have many negative short-term impacts including premature birth, low birth weight and subsequent behavioural problems. Now, findings from a new study have shown that exposure to as few as ten cigarettes is associated with negative impacts on the brains of teens who were exposed in the womb.
Published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal, the study is the first to look at the long-term impact on teens in a school setting and demonstrates the importance of providing more evidence-based stop smoking programmes for pregnant women.
The study controlled for other variables such as substance exposures other than tobacco and early childhood exposure, but still found that in-utero exposure to tobacco was associated with less optimal executive functioning in the classroom for teenage students.
Executive functioning includes a higher level of cognitive organisation and management processes in the brain that are important for success both in school and in daily life. These skills are learned throughout childhood and include how to self-manage and how best to organise and act on information.
Author, Ruth Rose-Jacobs from the Boston University School of Medicine, says that teens whose mums had smoked during pregnancy found it particularly difficult to regulate their behaviour, and education about smoking during pregnancy is vital:
“Because tobacco is one of the most common substances used during pregnancy – and it’s legal for adults to use – these results indicate the tremendous importance of bolstering efforts to ensure that women of child-bearing age and pregnant women have increased access to evidence-based smoking cessation programs.
Given that as few as ten cigarettes can have a negative impact, it is imperative that we act on this and provide as much access and education as we can to help prevent these negative outcomes.”
