File photo
File photo
Smoking is a big problem among low-income pregnant women who receive welfare in Illinois, according to a recent study.
University of Illinois social work professor Karen Tabb and Champaign-Urbana Public Health District director of maternal and child health management Brandon Meline found that public awareness campaigns addressing the health risks of smoking while pregnant were ineffective for some demographics.
The researchers found that more than 15% of low-income pregnant women continue to use cigarettes despite pregnancy. This is over the double the rate of the national average of 7.2% reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tabb's research team suspected the percentage of low-income women in the state who smoke while pregnant may be even higher than the value that they found, since some patients may hide their tobacco use from their health care providers.
“We approached this study thinking that there is still a gap in knowing how smoking can impact pregnancy for some women," Tabb told the Illinois News Bureau. "We were also curious how household factors such as living with other smokers were related."
A majority of the women reported that they lived with partners or family members who also smoked.
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