2005 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Athlone Institute of Technology
Mary McDonnell-Naughton(1), Dr Cliona McGarvey(2), Professor Tom Matthews(2)
Parental smoking and sudden infant death

Research undertaken by AIT and UCD researchers has shown that smoking is strongly associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The risk of SIDS is significantly increased by exposure to tobacco smoke whether during pregnancy or after the baby's birth. This risk is not restricted to maternal smoking alone with paternal smoking having an additional independent effect.

Univariate analysis of 276 SIDS cases and 831 matched controls revealed that smoking by any member of the household significantly increases an infant's risk of SIDS whether during pregnancy or postnatally. For the first eight years of this study an average of 74% of case mothers smoked during their pregnancies in comparison with 26% of controls. Case mothers smoked significantly more cigarettes per day than controls; 13.6 vs 10.3 P<0.001.

Mothers smoking carried the highest risk with subjects eight times more likely to be cases. In a multivariate analysis controlling for maternal age, education, alcohol consumption, social deprivation and infant birthweight, the odds ratio for maternal smoking during pregnancy was reduced from 8.12 to 3.97 but remained statistically significant, indicating that babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were four times more likely to die of SIDS than babies whose mothers were non smokers.

There was a very high correlation between maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal smoking after birth i.e. the vast majority of people who smoked during pregnancy continued to do so after the birth. This poses difficulties in accurately assessing the effects of maternal smoking postnatally as distinct from the effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy. Odds ratios for smoking postnatally were similar to those estimated for smoking during pregnancy

Significantly more case fathers were smokers than controls (67% vs 26%, P<0.001) and case fathers smoked a greater quantity of cigarettes than controls. Furthermore, 26% of case families had an additional individual other than either parent living in the household who smoked in comparison with 7% of controls. The proportions of fathers and others smoking in the household reduced slightly following the baby's birth, although overall there was a very high correlation between the number of people who smoked during pregnancy and those who smoked postnatally.



(1) Department of Nursing and Health Sciences, Athlone Institute of Technology.

(2) National Sudden Infant Death Register, Children's University Hospital, Temple St., Dublin.

Contact: Mary McDonnell-Naughton,
Department of Nursing & Health Science,
Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone; Tel: 090 64 21865; E-mail [email protected]