the effects of maternal cigarette smoking on infant anthropometric measurements

background: the association between maternal smoking and poor pregnancy outcome, which is well established in medi­cal literature, has also been corroborated by the results of this study conducted in a turkish hospital. our objective was to investi­gate the effects of cigarette smoking during pregnancy on infant head circumference, height, weight, and body mass in­dex (bmi). methods: in this retrospective study, the data was collected from the medical live birth registry in a maternity hospital with the largest capacity of births in a city of northwest turkey during 2002. results: we found that 16.4% (1040/6332) of mothers investigated had smoked during their pregnancy, with a mean of 5 ciga­rettes per day. head circumference, height, weight and bmi values of male infants whose mothers smoked were found to be less than those of infants whose mothers did not smoke ( p > 0.05, for each one). head circumference, height, weight and bmi values of female infants whose mothers smoked were less than those whose mothers did not smoke ( p > 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.05 and p > 0.05, respectively). according to analysis of variance, infant head circumferences, heights and weights in all infants decreased as the rate of the mother's smoking increased ( p > 0.05, p < 0.001 and p > 0.05, respec­tively). conclusions: the results support that maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with a linear reduction of height meas­urement, and the infants appeared to be more susceptible to the growth retarding effects of cigarette smoking on height. thus, if cessation-of-smoking programs are initiated before conception, many of the harmful effects of smoking on fe­tal growth might be prevented.