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IJE Advance Access originally published online on November 27, 2008
International Journal of Epidemiology 2009 38(1):158-172; doi:10.1093/ije/dyn250
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2008; all rights reserved.

Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and cognitive performance in adolescence

S Kafouri1, G Leonard2, M Perron3,4, L Richer5, JR Séguin3, S Veillette3,4, Z Pausova1,3 and T Paus1,2,*

1Brain and Body Centre, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
2Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
3Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
4Groupe ECOBES, CEGEP Jonquiere, Jonquiere, Quebec, Canada.
5Department of Psychology, University of Quebec in Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada.

*Corresponding author. Brain and Body Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK. E-mail: tomas.paus{at}nottingham.ac.uk


  Abstract

Background The incidence of cigarette smoking during pregnancy remains high. Maternal smoking during pregnancy is known to be associated with cognitive and behavioural sequelae in childhood and adolescence. We assessed the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and cognitive abilities in adolescent offspring (n = 503, 12- to 18-years old) using an extensive 6-h battery of tests.

Methods Non-exposed adolescents (controls) were matched to exposed adolescents (cases) by maternal education and school attended. Cognitive abilities were evaluated using a neuropsychological battery consisting of 33 tasks measuring verbal abilities, visuo-spatial skills, verbal and visual memory, processing speed, resistance to interference and motor dexterity.

Results We found no differences between cases and controls in any of the cognitive domains whether potential confounders were included in the model or not. In addition to maternal smoking during pregnancy, we also evaluated the effect of sex and age on the various cognitive abilities in this large adolescent sample and found that most of the abilities continue to improve during adolescence to the same extent in girls and boys, with several age-independent sex differences.

Conclusions We found no effect of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy on cognitive abilities of the adolescent offspring when matching cases and controls by maternal education, the most common confounder of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy.

Keywords Tobacco, pregnancy, adolescence, cognition, sex, neuropsychological assessment

Accepted 27 October 2008


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