The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of cigarette smoking among a population-based sample of pregnant women in Argentina by socio-demographics factors.

Methods: Secondary analysis of data came from The Living Standard Survey, a population-based sample implemented by SIEMPRO-INDEC (government agencies) in 2001 throughout Argentina. The survey had an overall response rate of 86.7% of participants. There were only 3 items on smoking behavior: current smoking status, number of cigarettes per day and age of initiation. We report results from the 707 pregnant women at the time of the survey and who were older than 15 years old and compared the prevalence of smoking by marital status, employment, education, health insurance, income, region, and age.

Results: The 707 pregnant women were between 15 and 51 y, mean age of 26.51 y. Of these 53% had never smoked, 29% had quit smoking during this pregnancy, and 18% were current smokers. 5% of women were non-daily smokers, 8% smoked less than 5 cigarettes per day, 3% smoked between 6 and 19 cigarettes per day and 2% smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day. Among unmarried pregnant women, 22% were smokers with 7.2% smoking < 5 cigarettes per day and 13.1% between 6 and 19 cigarettes per day. Smoking peaked among women between 36 and 45 years with 12% smoking 6 to 19 cigarettes per day and 35% were ex-smokers.