Smoking and Drinking Behavior before and during Pregnancy of Married Mothers of Live-Born Infants and Stillborn Infants

Data from the 1980 National Natality Survey (NNS) and the 1980 National Fetal Mortality Survey (NFMS) are used to describe the drinking and smoking behavior of married mothers before and during pregnancy according to maternal race and Hispanic origin, age, and education. Typically, smokers were whit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public health reports (1974) 1984-03, Vol.99 (2), p.117-127
Main Authors: Kate Prager, Malin, Henry, Danielle Spiegler, Pearl Van Natta, Placek, Paul J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age Factors
Alcohol Drinking
Alcoholic beverages
Behavior
Cigarette smoking
Cigarettes
Educational attainment
Educational Status
Epidemiologic Methods
Ethnic Groups
Female
Fetal Death - etiology
Health Surveys
Hispanics
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Infants
Marriage
Mothers
Pregnancy
Smoking
Special Section: Findings from the 1980 National Natality and Fetal Mortality Surveys
Stillbirth
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States
United States Public Health Service
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Summary:Data from the 1980 National Natality Survey (NNS) and the 1980 National Fetal Mortality Survey (NFMS) are used to describe the drinking and smoking behavior of married mothers before and during pregnancy according to maternal race and Hispanic origin, age, and education. Typically, smokers were white mothers under 25 years of age with a high school education or less, and drinkers were white mothers 25 years of age and older with more than a high school education. When pregnancy was confirmed, reductions in smoking and drinking occurred. However, mothers of stillborn infants were less likely to stop smoking than were the mothers of live-born infants. Although the prevalence of drinking was much higher than was the prevalence of smoking among the mothers included in these surveys, the reduction in drinking was much more pronounced than was the reduction in smoking. For nearly every sociodemographic subgroup, the prevalence of smoking was higher and the prevalence of drinking was lower among mothers of stillborn infants than among mothers of live-born infants. Some of these differences are due to the age-race-health status makeup of the two NNS-NFMS populations sampled, and carefully controlled multivariate analyses are required to specify the relationship of maternal smoking and drinking to birth outcome. This descriptive analysis is the first step in that process.
ISSN:0033-3549
1468-2877