Abstract
Purpose
Smoking during pregnancy may be linked to other problematic prenatal health behaviors in women. We examined interrelationships among prenatal smoking, prenatal health behaviors and mental health. The objective of this study was to examine factors that may contribute to variations in prenatal health practices among women who smoke during pregnancy.
Methods
Birth mothers from an adoption study (N = 912) were interviewed about prenatal smoking, health behaviors, and mental health symptoms at 5 months postpartum.
Results
One-quarter of participants (N = 222) reported smoking 6 or more cigarettes daily for at least 1 trimester. For mothers who smoked more than 6 cigarettes daily, higher levels of antisocial behaviors (β = − .14, p = .03) and depressive symptoms (β = − .17, p = .03) were associated with less frequent prenatal folate use; antisocial behaviors and depressive symptoms were not associated for prenatal folate use among women who did not smoke more than 6 cigarettes daily. For mothers who did not smoke more than 6 cigarettes daily, more depressive symptoms were associated with fewer prenatal care visits (β = .12, p = .01). Antisocial behaviors and anxiety symptoms were not associated with prenatal care visits in either group of mothers.
Conclusions for Practice
Maternal antisocial behaviors and depressive symptoms during pregnancy may be markers for poorer adherence to recommendations for folate supplementation among women who smoke 6 or more cigarettes daily during pregnancy, independent of adequacy of prenatal care.
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Acknowledgements
We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of Rand Conger and Laura Scaramella on the larger research study and all of the study participants and adoption agencies.
Funding
Nikita Nagpal, MD was supported by grant T32HP22238 from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Amanda Ramos, PhD was supported by grant R305B090007 from the Institute of Education Sciences and grant F32ES031832 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Data collection for this project was supported by grant R01 HD042608 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and NIDA (PI Years 1-5: David Reiss, MD; PI Years 6-10: Leslie Leve, PhD); and grant R01 DA20585 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIMH, and OBSSR (PI: Jenae Neiderhiser, PhD). Effort on this project was supported by grant K23DA037913 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (PI Suena Massey, MD) and grant UH3 OD023389 from the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR; MPIs: Jenae Neiderhiser, PhD; Leslie Leve, PhD; Jody Ganiban, PhD). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIDA, NICHD, or the NIH.
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Nagpal, N., Ramos, A.M., Hajal, N. et al. Psychopathology Symptoms are Associated with Prenatal Health Practices in Pregnant Women with Heavy Smoking Levels. Matern Child Health J 25, 330–337 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-03048-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-03048-5