Key Determinants Influencing the Health Literacy of Pregnant Women in the Czech Republic.

Background: Health literacy is a critical determinant of women's and children's health and therefore has immense consequences for the health of society as well. Evidence from epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies indicates that unhealthy lifestyles and risky behavioural habits of parents before conception and during pregnancy influence the etiology of various health defects. Decreasing primary risk factors, practicing physical wellness, monitoring physiological markers and preparing for labour, breastfeeding and newborn care should be the main parental responsibilities during the prenatal period.

[The role of smoking in the epigenetic modification of phenotype: the latest knowledge about smoking-induced pathways].

Many environmental factors, including chemicals in cigarette smoke, have deleterious effects on human health. Epidemiological studies have repeatedly confirmed that prenatal exposure to maternal smoking is associated not only with complications of pregnancy, foetal growth retardation and disturbed development, but also with an increased risk of serious diseases manifested during childhood and adulthood. The possible pathways of aberrant foetal programming are the interactions of genes and environmental factors through epigenetic mechanisms.

[Factors influencing the experimentation with smoking: observed in ELSPAC Study].

Background: The causes of children' and adolescents' smoking, along with mechanisms which lead to addiction, include both genetic and environmental factors: individual, social and societal. The European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) collects data about the cohort of children from Brno and district Znojmo at scheduled stages from 18th week of prenatal to 19th year of age, using an international standardized questionnaire set. At the age of eleven the children first reported information on themselves.

Parental education and family status--association with children's cigarette smoking.

Background: Social influences are among the most important factors associated with children's and adolescents' smoking. Social norms in families, peer groups, professional and municipal communities influence the individuals ones by the process of socialization obtained mainly by interactions and observations. Especially social context of the home environment expressed by household smoking restriction serves as a socialization mechanism that dissuades from the using of tobacco.

What limits the effectiveness of school-based anti-smoking programmes?

Background: It is generally accepted that living in families where there are smokers, children are stressed not only by the harmful physical exposure to second-hand and third-hand tobacco smoke, but also by the negative models of the adult relatives' behaviour, as relatives who smoke can inspire children to imitate this behaviour, influencing attitudes towards, and early experiments with smoking. In this paper, some of the most important results about influence of family smoking on the effects of the anti-smoking educational programme "Non-smoking Is Normal" are described.

Methods: The school-based programme was created by medical and educational specialists and targets children at the first level of primary schools (aged from 6 to 11 years).

Why to smoke? Why not to smoke? Major reasons for children's decisions on whether or not to smoke.

Unlabelled: This study, aimed at the primary prevention of smoking behaviour in children and adolescents, attempts to find the main factors that distinguish smokers and non-smokers in the period of their first experimentation with cigarettes. There are only a few studies dealing with investigations into current motivations of teenagers as to whether or not to smoke. The programme entitled "Normal is not to smoke", using evaluation questionnaires given to children in the 3rd and 5th classes, also contains--among many other things--specifics on reasons children have for making the decision whether to become a smoker or non-smoker.

The atherogenic index of plasma is increased by hormonal contraception.

Background/aims: Oral contraceptives are known to induce secondary dyslipidemia. The aim of this study was to determine if hormonal contraceptives affect the new atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) = log[triglycerides (TG)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)] together with the total cholesterol/HDL-C (TC/HDL-C) and the apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A1 (apoB/apoA1) ratios.

Design And Methods: This study included 43 healthy women.

Similarities and differences between smoking and non-smoking ten-year-old children in primary schools.

Background: For the majority of smokers, smoking is related to other forms of risk behaviour, especially poorer eating habits. The primary preventive educational programme "No smoking is a norm" focuses on children of younger school age (under 10 yrs), enables comparison and statistical evaluation of whether there are any differences (and which) between ten-year-olds with various smoking experiences, with special attention paid to their exposure to the influence of smokers, and their eating habits.

Methods: Analysis of data gained from a questionnaire compared groups of boys and girls, smokers and non-smokers, and children from families with no smokers, occasional smokers, and frequent smokers.

Where do our children learn to smoke?

Background: Primary prevention of smoking in children is mostly carried out through school education schemes organised by trained teachers. The generally accepted notion is that children's opinions and behaviour are influenced by the school, but mainly by the family and their peers, as well as by the broader society. The primary preventive programme aimed at the first three years of primary schools, called "No Smoking is a Norm" strives to encourage parents to take an active part in the education of their children against smoking, as well as about other aspects of a healthy lifestyle.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy, behavioral problems and school performances of their school-aged children.

Background: Child behavior and school performance is influenced by many genetic and environmental factors including prenatal exposure to chemical neurotoxins contained in cigarette smoke. The European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) prospective study which in the Czech Republic incorporates a cohort of children born in the years 1991/2 in Brno city and the Znojmo district also allows to analyze the relationships between prenatal cigarette smoke exposure and the occurrence of behavior and learning disorders.

Methods: Using questionnaires repeatedly filled in by teachers and investigation protocols performed by research team workers data for the Brno sample of children was collected on the occurrence of signs indicating more serious problems with school assignment fulfilling and behavior disorders in the childrens' 8, 11 and 13 years of age.

"Our class does not smoke"; the Czech version of the "smoke-free class competition" programme.

Unlabelled: The "Smoke-Free Class Competition" programme stems from a theory of the consequences of cultural and social miming in the onset of smoking addiction: it initiates non-smokers' active encouragement in supporting a non-smoking environment in class groups of teenagers. The first experience with the programme (Our Class Does Not Smoke) in the Czech Republic was obtained from a set of 13 classes from 6 primary schools with 261 14-year-olds who had been acquainted with the programme rules and voluntarily agreed to abide by them.

Methods: Methodological instruction for teachers, school psychologists, pupils and parents providing motivation to various activities (discussion, craft projects, group therapy with smokers, demonstrations of ascertaining exposure and health consequences of smoking) were compiled to support the programme.

Trends in respiratory morbidity of children in relation to their passive smoking exposure.

Aims: Exposure of children to passive smoking is significantly associated with respiratory morbidity. Youngest children between 0-2 years are harmed in the most significant way, while, together with the growing age a decrease is observed of prevalence of respiratory diseases and influence of passive smoking.

Methods: During repeated investigations of children from European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) it was assessed, whether and how in the period from the birth to five years of age varied the rate of children exposed to environment filled with smoke and what were the differences in the frequency of diseases among the groups of children with different exposure level.