Title: Smoking relapse prevention intervention: a study of postpartum women in Lodz, Poland

Authors: Kinga Polanska, Wojciech Hanke, Danuta Ligocka

Addresses: Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland. ' Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland. ' Chemical Hazards Department, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland

Abstract: Approximately 30–40% of pregnant women, who smoke prior to pregnancy, tend to quit smoking by the first prenatal visit but more than half of them relapse to smoking after delivery. Interventions to maintain quitting smoking after delivery were so far rarely performed and their effectiveness is not well documented. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the smoking relapse prevention intervention for postpartum women. The study included 199 postpartum women (100 in the intervention group and 99 in a control group) who had quit smoking in the recent pregnancy and maintained smoking abstinence within 2 weeks after delivery (confirmed by biochemical verification). The intervention consisted of three visits conducted by midwives trained in anti-smoking intervention techniques. Women from the control group received a standard anti-smoking message. The smoking status of the study subjects was updated 6 and 12 months after delivery. The distribution of the socio-demographic characteristic of the women from the two groups did not show statistically significant differences. The women from the intervention group relapsed to smoking 12 months after delivery significantly less frequently than the women from the control group (26% vs. 56%; odds ratio = 0.28; 95% CI 0.15–0.51). The women who returned to smoking, did this later and smoked fewer cigarettes per day when they had participated in the programme.

Keywords: smoking cessation; relapse prevention; pregnancy; postpartum women; pregnant women; female smokers; smoking abstinence; anti-smoking intervention; Poland.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENVH.2008.020926

International Journal of Environment and Health, 2008 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.330 - 337

Published online: 24 Oct 2008 *

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