Parental cigarette smoking and the risk of congenital heart defects

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of study was to investigate the association between parental cigarette smoking and congenital heart defects in infants. Methods: The case – control study comprised 365 newborns with congenital heart defects (cases) and 1122 randomly selected newborns without any defects (controls), born in Kaunas city during 1995–2005. Information on sociodemographic characteristics, reproductive history, health behaviors and other factors was collected through the interview with parents using standardized questionnaires. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between parental smoking and congenital heart anomalies. Results: The multivariate analysis revealed that after adjustment for potential confounders (maternal education level, social status, marital status) parental smoking during three months before pregnancy to the end of the first trimester statistically significantly increased risk of congenital heart defects: both parents (adjusted OR =2.43; 95% CI 1.68–3.50), maternal (adjusted OR=2.15; 95% CI 1.06–4.34) and paternal (adjusted OR=1.41; 95% CI 1.05–1.90), if compared with neither parent smoking. Conclusion: The study results indicated that parental smoking during three months before pregnancy to the end of the first trimester increased the risk of congenital heart defects in infants.