PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kabir, Zubair
AU  - McAvoy, Helen
AU  - Reulbach, Udo
AU  - Wilde, Jane
AU  - Daly, Sean
AU  - Clancy, Luke
TI  - Smoking rates in pregnant women one year before and after the Irish workplace smoke-free policy: A widening gap?
DP  - 2011 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - p1551
VI  - 38
IP  - Suppl 55
4099  - https://publications.ersnet.org//content/38/Suppl_55/p1551.short
4100  - https://publications.ersnet.org//content/38/Suppl_55/p1551.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38
AB  - Objectives: To examine smoking rates during pregnancy among Irish mothers across selected socio-economic and demographic maternal characteristics one year before and after the Irish workplace smoke-free policy introduced in March 2004.Methods: Individual-level data on mothers' with singleton live-births were analyzed for the years 2003 [n=7,593] and 2005 [n=7,648] in a Dublin university teaching hospital. Smokers were classified as current smokers and are self-reported. Age-standardized smoking rates for the two main sub-groups of employment status (working vs. not working) were estimated across maternal age, ethnicity and marital status based on the 2002 Census, as the standard. Relative Index of Inequality (RII), with 95% CI, in age-standardized smoking rates was computed (comparing not working with working mothers) for each calendar year.Results: Overall, there was a 12% significant decline in crude smoking rates from 23.4% [in 2003] to 20.6% [in 2005]. RII in age-standardized smoking rates for 2003 was 0.65 (0.50-0.81) and increased to 0.79 (0.62-0.96) in 2005 (widened relatively by 22%) when comparing pregnant mothers not working with those working separately for each of the two calendar years.Conclusions: Smoking rates in unemployed pregnant mothers remain high in Ireland, despite a significant decline one year after the comprehensive smoke-free policy. The disparity in smoking rates observed between employed and unemployed women has widened by 22%. Tobacco control and smoking cessation approaches must develop successful approaches to targeting unemployed women in pregnancy if social inequalities in birth outcomes and women's health are to be tackled.