Maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adulthood.

Objective: This study was aimed at assessing the effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on metabolic cardiovascular risk factors in early adulthood in a Brazilian birth cohort, after controlling for possible confounding variables and health behaviors in early adulthood.

Methods: In 1982, the maternity hospitals in Pelotas, southern Brazil, were visited and all births were identified. Those livebirths whose family lived in the urban area of the city were studied prospectively.