Smoking-related behaviours of pregnant women depending on their place of residence.

Objectives: Smoking is a commonly recognized risk factor of civilization diseases. Despite many educational programmes concerning harmful effects of tobacco smoking, this habit is still very popular. Particularly alarming is a high percentage of pregnant women who smoke.

Methods: The aim of the study was to analyse the prevalence of smoking among pregnant women depending on their place of residence. The research was conducted in randomly selected 30 outpatient clinics for women in Łodź and 16 outpatient clinics in rural communes of the Łodź province. The epidemiological analysis included 400 women. Collected data were processed statistically using the descriptive methods and statistical inference.

Results: It has been demonstrated that smoking in the past was more popular among city residents than countryside residents (58.2% and 47.9%, respectively). Women living in the city smoked almost three times more frequently during the whole pregnancy than the respondents from the countryside (13.4% and 4.3%, respectively). Furthermore, every fifth respondent living in the urban area (f=0.21) smoked over 10 cigarettes a day, and every fourth respondent from rural communes (f=0.24) smoked from 5 to 10 cigarettes a day. However, in the month preceding the research, pregnant women from rural areas smoked slightly more frequently as compared to the subjects from the city. In the group of pregnant women who smoked in the past or who smoke at present, regardless from their place of residence, every other woman did not breastfeed her baby. 6.1% of city residents and 4.3% of countryside residents declared that they smoked during the breastfeeding period.

Conclusions: Within the analysed population the influence of place of residence on the prevalence of active smoking, number of smoked cigarettes and giving up smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding period has been evidenced.