engleski

Alcohol drinking and smoking habits during pregnancy in a sample of Croatian urban mothers

Prenatal care and pregnancy outcome depend on mothers’ health knowledge, educational level, urban or rural surroundings, personal believes and family support. Two most common noxious agents in pregnancy, that can significantly affect its outcome, are alcohol drinking and cigarette smoking. We present the results of a questionnaire done on a sample 656 mothers, living in the centre of Zagreb, a highly urban area. The educational level is high with 41.46% of the mothers finishing high school, 11.28% having a college degree and 44.96% having university diploma. Maternal age span at the time of the study was 26 to 56 years (median 39.5 years). 24% of the mothers admit drinking alcohol and 33% of mothers smokes cigarettes. Although 97% know about the negative effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, 13.56% of mothers admitted drinking alcohol during pregnancy, 5% drank alcohol daily during the pregnancy and 2.7% of the mothers engaged at least once during pregnancy in binge drinking. 15.83% of mothers admitted smoking cigarettes during pregnancy, with 1.82% of mothers smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day. Conclusion: we evaluated drinking and smoking habits in an urban and highly educated sample of women. Although the health education and knowledge is high, with almost 2- fold decrease in drinking and smoking habits during pregnancy, there are still 13.56% of mothers drinking and 15.83% of mothers smoking during pregnancy. These data show the necessity for further development and implementation of public health programmes for the prevention of negative pregnancy outcomes.

Pregnancy; Smoking; Alcohol

nije evidentirano