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. 2022 Oct 10:10:1017046.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1017046. eCollection 2022.

Parental smoking exposure before and during pregnancy and offspring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder risk: A Chinese child and adolescent cohort study

Dong Liu  1 , Yaping Ren  2 , Tianfeng Wu  2 , Huiping Shen  2 , Peijing Yan  3 , Yu Meng  1 , Qianlong Zhang  1 , Jun Zhang  1 , Pinqing Bai  2 , Jian Zhao  1
Affiliations

Parental smoking exposure before and during pregnancy and offspring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder risk: A Chinese child and adolescent cohort study

Dong Liu et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Previous studies revealed that maternal smoking exposure during pregnancy was an essential risk factor for offspring developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The impact of paternal smoking exposure 1 year before pregnancy on offspring ADHD risk is still unclear.

Methods: The present study included 2,477 school-age children and their parents from the Shanghai Child and Adolescent Health Cohort who had complete data for offspring ADHD diagnosis and parents' smoking exposure before and during pregnancy information. A multivariate logistic regression model and Firth's logistic regression model were used to determine the associations of paternal smoking and parental smoke exposure patterns before and during pregnancy with offspring ADHD risk.

Results: Children whose fathers smoked before pregnancy had a higher risk of developing ADHD [odds ratio (OR) = 2.59, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.35-4.98] compared to those whose fathers had never been exposed to smoking. Similarly, parents who were exposed to smoking or second-hand smoke before pregnancy had 1.96 times (OR = 1.96, 95% CI: 1.19-3.22) more likely to have offspring with ADHD. Moreover, children whose parents were exposed to smoking both before and during pregnancy were 2.01 times (OR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.29-3.12) more likely to develop ADHD.

Conclusion: Paternal smoking before pregnancy and parental smoking exposure 1 year ahead of and throughout pregnancy were all risk factors for offspring developing ADHD.

Keywords: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); parental smoking; paternal smoking; pregnancy smoking cessation; second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Parental smoking exposure pattern before and during pregnancy. The black lines represent the number of fathers or mothers who kept the same smoking or second-hand smoke exposure (or did not be exposed to smoking) patterns before and during pregnancy. The black dashed lines represent the number of both parents who were exposed to smoking or second-hand smoke. SHS, second-hand smoke.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of parents of different smoking exposure patterns before and during pregnancy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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