SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF MOTHERS WHO SMOKE DURING PREGNANCY AND INFLUENCE OF THESE FACTORS ON THE OFFSPRING

The survey consisted of 1819 mothers who smoked during pregnancy, out of a parturient population of 12,068 cases in North Finland in 1966. Perinatal mortality did not increase among the smokers, but birth weight was lower, and both morbidity and mortality up to the age of five were higher than among the controls. These differences could not be explained by reference to social standing, but the ill-effects were more pronounced in the groups of lower standing. © 1979.