Neurological handicaps among children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

Neurological handicaps among children up to age 14 whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy (N = 1,819) and control children born in Northern Finland in 1966 were studied. Altogether, 78 children of smokers and 62 controls had mental retardation (IQ less than 85), cerebral palsy, and/or epilepsy, either current or past. Neither the number of handicapped children nor the numbers of the various handicaps differed significantly with respect to maternal smoking, although the figures were higher among smokers. The children of the smokers had perinatal diseases and conditions known to cause long-term neurological sequelae significantly more often, but the actual number of such cases did not increase. Mortality up to the age of 14 years was statistically significant among children born to smokers.