Longitudinal cohort survey of women's smoking behaviour and attitudes in pregnancy: study methods and baseline data

• Published in: BMJ open 2014-05, Vol.4 (5), p.e004915-e004915
• Main Authors: Orton, Sophie, Bowker, Katharine, Cooper, Sue, Naughton, Felix, Ussher, Michael, Pickett, Kate E, Leonardi-Bee, Jo, Sutton, Stephen, Dhalwani, Nafeesa N, Coleman, Tim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Attitude to Health; Attitudes; Babies; Clinics; Female; Health behavior; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Maternal Behavior; Occupations; Pregnancy; Prospective Studies; Questionnaires; Research Design; Smoking - psychology; Smoking and Tobacco; Surveys and Questionnaires; Womens health; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2044-6055; 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-004915

Objectives To report the methods used to assemble a contemporary pregnancy cohort for investigating influences on smoking behaviour before, during and after pregnancy and to report characteristics of women recruited. Design Longitudinal cohort survey. Setting Two maternity hospitals, Nottingham, England. Participants 3265 women who attended antenatal ultrasound scan clinics were offered cohort enrolment; those who were 8–26 weeks pregnant and were currently smoking or had recently stopped smoking were eligible. Cohort enrollment took place between August 2011 and August 2012. Primary and secondary outcome measures Prevalence of smoking at cohort entry and at two follow-up time points (34–36 weeks gestation and 3 months postnatally); response rate, participants’ sociodemographic characteristics. Results 1101 (33.7%, 95% CI 32.1% to 35.4%) women were eligible for inclusion in the cohort, and of these 850 (77.2%, 95% CI 74.6% to 79.6%) were recruited. Within the cohort, 57.4% (N=488, 95% CI 54.1% to 60.7%) reported to be current smokers. Current smokers were significantly younger than ex-smokers (p