Tobacco smoking during pregnancy and risk of adverse behaviour in offspring: A follow-up study

Objectives: This study examines associations between prenatal exposure to tobacco smoking and adversebehaviour in the offspring.Methods: We included 1016 pregnant women from Greenland and Ukraine (526 from Greenland and 490from Ukraine). Serum cotinine measurements were used to identify smoking pregnant women. Whenthe children were from five to nine years of age, the parents assessed the child’s behaviour using theStrength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).Results: Overall, smoking in pregnancy was not associated with a higher probability of adverse behaviourassessed by the total SDQ score. However, in the crude analysis smoking was associated with a highermean difference of SDQ-total score. In Greenland the SDQ-total mean difference (MD) was (MD (95%CI) = 1.31 points (0.42; 2.19)) and in Ukraine (MD (95% CI) = 0.18 points (−1.2; 0.91)), whereas the adjustedmean differences were statistically non-significant.Conclusions: In utero exposure to tobacco smoking was not associated with a significant higher risk ofadverse behaviour in the offspring, but elevated risk of adverse behaviour among children prenatallyexposed to smoking cannot be excluded.