Cigarette smoking and preeclampsia.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relationship between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and the development of preeclampsia.

METHODS

A case-control study compared the smoking histories of 110 nulliparous preeclamptic women and 115 healthy nulliparas aged 15-35 years who delivered at North Carolina Memorial Hospital.

RESULTS

Unconditioned logistic regression relating smoking during pregnancy to preeclampsia yielded an odds ratio of 0.71 (95% confidence interval 0.33-1.50) when adjusting for working during pregnancy, alcohol use, medication use, contraceptive choices with the father of the index pregnancy, and family history of preeclampsia. There was no evidence of a dose-response effect of reduced risk for heavier smokers.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite major methodologic improvements from previous studies, including rigorous diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia, a negative, non-statistically significant association persisted between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and preeclampsia, similar in magnitude to that of previous reports.