Cigarette smoking and perception of its advertisement among antenatal clinic attendees in referral health facilities in Enugu, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND The most predominant form of tobacco use is cigarette smoking, and it poses serious threats to maternal and child health. The magnitude of cigarette smoking in pregnancy in our environment is not well-known. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of cigarette smoking among pregnant women in Enugu, Nigeria as well as their exposures and perceptions of cigarette smoking advertisement. MATERIALS AND METHODS Questionnaires were administered to a cross-section of pregnant women randomly selected from three hospitals in Enugu, South-East Nigeria, from May 2, 2012 to June 12, 2012. Analysis was both descriptive and inferential at 95% confidence levels. RESULTS The prevalence of tobacco smoking in pregnancy was 4.5% (9/200). Over 90% of respondents admitted that cigarette smoking could harm both mother and unborn baby. In all, 79.5% (159/200) of respondents had seen or heard of advertisement for cigarette smoking as against 82.5% (165/200) that had seen or heard of antismoking advertisement (P = 0.444, odds ratio = 1.2 [95% confidence intervals: 0.74, 2.00]). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of cigarette smoking in pregnancy in Enugu, Nigeria was low, and there was high exposure to both pro-and anti-smoking advertisement. The awareness of harmful health effect of smoking was high but, that of the specific diseases associated with smoking in pregnancy was limited. Hence, antenatal classes and antismoking advertisement should be scaled-up to include maternal and peri-natal diseases/conditions associated with cigarette smoking.