Findings from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study indicate that rates of tobacco use during pregnancy, as well as exposure of pregnant women and their young children to secondhand smoke, are significant threats to health in several low and middle-income countries. In a few of the countries sampled, including some in Latin America, rates of tobacco-related exposures may already be high enough to warrant substantial concern. Findings from the study, which is the first to examine pregnant women’s tobacco use, second-hand smoke exposure and attitudes toward women’s tobacco use in multiple developing countries, will appear in the April 2008, issue of the American Journal of Public Health, with advance online publication on February 28, 2008.

Historically, the prevalence of smoking among women in the developing world has been very low, in part because of strong cultural constraints against women’s tobacco use. “This study indicates that public health officials in developing nations should take immediate steps to prevent and reduce tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure among pregnant women,” said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). “This should include efforts to better understand the scope of the problem, so as to best direct public health interventions.”

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