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Developmental Biology - Environmental Toxins
Measuring Mother's Blood for Smoking
Maternal smoking in pregnancy increases risk of ADHD among offspring by 3-fold...
The higher the cotinine levels are in a mother's blood during pregnancy, the greater her child's risk for developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) later in life. An epidemiological study conducted by the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry at the University of Turku in Finland, is the first global study to make the connection between fetal nicotine exposure and a diagnosis of ADHD. In the course of their research, finding how to measure cotinine levels collected from pregnant women's serum specimens.
Despite its proven negative effects on fetal development, smoking during pregnancy remains a significant public health issue. During 2017, approximately 12.5% of all pregnant women in Finland smoked during pregnancy, while 7% continued to smoke after their pregnancy.
"Exposure to maternal smoking is associated with various adverse perinatal outcomes. An association between maternal smoking and offspring ADHD has been shown in several studies. However, the causality of the association has been questioned as all previous studies on the topic were based on maternal self-report of smoking, since shown to underestimate the true rate of smoking. The disclosure of smoking is even lower among pregnant smokers."
Adjunct Professor Roshan Chudal, MBBS, MPH, PhD, Research Centre, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku, Turku, Finland;
Cotinine is the biomarker indicating nicotine exposure. This includes active smoking as well as nicotine exposure from other sources such as nicotine replacement therapy or passive smoking. Measuring cotinine levels from maternal serum specimens collected during pregnancy, this study investigated the association between nicotine exposure during pregnancy and offspring ADHD.
This study included 1,079 ADHD cases and an equal number of matched controls born between 1998 and 1999. Maternal cotinine levels were measured from maternal serum specimens collected during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy and archived in the national biobank. The strength of the research is the availability of valuable information from the Finnish Maternity Cohort biobank (FMC).
The research was published in the journal Pediatrics.
"In this first nationwide study using maternal cotinine levels, we report a strong association between prenatal nicotine exposure and offspring ADHD," explains Professor Andre Sourander, research group leader from the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry. "Given the high prevalence of both smoking during pregnancy and ADHD among children, these findings warrant more study of the interplay between maternal smoking and environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors," observes Professor Sourander.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers smoking one of the main public health concerns worldwide.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: An association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been shown across several studies based on self-reports. No previous studies have investigated the association of nicotine exposure measured by cotinine levels during pregnancy and offspring ADHD.
Methods
In this population-based study, 1079 patients born between 1998 and 1999 and diagnosed with ADHD according to the International Classification of Diseases and 1079 matched controls were identified from Finnish nationwide registers. Maternal cotinine levels were measured by using quantitative immunoassays from maternal serum specimens collected during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy and archived in the national biobank.
Results
There was a significant association between increasing log-transformed maternal cotinine levels and offspring ADHD. The odds ratio was 1.09 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06–1.12) when adjusting for maternal socioeconomic status, maternal age, maternal psychopathology, paternal age, paternal psychopathology, and child’s birth weight for gestational age. In the categorical analyses with cotinine levels in 3 groups, heavy nicotine exposure (cotinine level >50 ng/mL) was associated with offspring ADHD, with an odds ratio of 2.21 (95% CI 1.63–2.99) in the adjusted analyses. Analyses by deciles of cotinine levels revealed that the adjusted odds for offspring ADHD in the highest decile was 3.34 (95% CI 2.02–5.52).
Conclusions
The study reveals an association with and a dose-response relationship between nicotine exposure during pregnancy and offspring ADHD. Future studies incorporating maternal smoking and environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors are warranted.
Authors
Andre Sourander, Minna Sucksdorff, Roshan Chudal, Heljä-Marja Surcel, Susanna Hinkka-Yli-Salomäki, David Gyllenberg, Keely Cheslack-Postava and Alan S. Brown.
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Mar 12, 2019 Fetal Timeline Maternal Timeline News
 Research reveals a strong association between prenatal nicotine exposure and children with ADHD. The work was supported by the Academy of Finland, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and the Finnish Medical Foundation. Image of smoke overwhelming pregnant mom, by MouseWorks.
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