ANALYSIS OF SECOND-HAND TOBACCO SMOKE AND NICOTINE LEVELS ON PREGNANCY OUTCOMES AND INFANT HEALTH

Objective: The main objective of the study is to find the effect of second-hand tobacco smoke and nicotine levels on pregnancy outcomes and infant health among local population of Pakistan. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Shaikh Zayed Medical College and Hospital Rahim Yar Khan during September 2019 to January 2020. This study was done with the permission of ethical committee of hospital. The data was collected from 100 pregnant females who visited the OPD of hospital. The data was collected through a questionnaire. This questionnaire includes the demographic data of all the participants. The self-administrated questionnaire included medical and lifestyle variables, such as demographics, ages of both male and female partner, medical and reproductive history, smoking history and duration of infertility. Results: The data was collected from 100 pregnant females who were second hand smokers. These women were non-smoker pregnant women and exposed to cigarette smoking and suffer from complications during childbirth. The mean age of mothers, was 27.38±5.5 years (range from 13 to 45 years). The mean number of pregnancies was 1.91 ± 0.99 (range from 1 to 5). The mean parity was 1.77 ± 0.84 (range from 0 to 5). 14.2% (213) of women were SHS exposure during pregnancy and 85.8% (1287) were not. Conclusion: It is concluded that non-smoking pregnant women in Pakistan who lived with a smoking husband were highly exposed to SHS, especially from their husbands. In addition, non-smoking pregnant women have inadequate knowledge on the harms of SHS