Passive Smoking and Congenital Heart Defects in Offspring among Bangladesh

Abstract

Objective: Maternal active smoking is significantly associated with an increased risk of congenital heart defects (CHDs), but the association between maternal passive smoking and risk of CHDs is inconclusive. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of passive smoking and the risk of development of CHD among Bangladeshi population. Methodology: It was a case control study, conducted from July 2018 to July 2019 in Paediatric Cardiology department of Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital. Parents of the children with CHD visiting the out-patient department of Dhaka Shishu Hospital was considered as cases. Controls were taken from parents of the children who don’t have congenital heart disease. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect information on maternal active and passive smoking. Data was collected by using a structured questionnaire containing all the variables of interest and analyzed by using SPSS version 21. Chi square test (ꭓ2), Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to estimate the associations between maternal passive smoking and all CHDs. Risk factors on bivariate analysis were introduced into a logistic regression model as independent factors and dependent variable was CHDs to find out the association between CHDs and maternal passive smoking.  Results:  Among case group no mother was active smoker, 51.9% were passive smoker and most of the cases source was husband, 19.6% took smokeless tobacco or green tobacco, 55.8% took tea and 5.8% took coffee during pregnancy period. On logistic regression analysis passive smoking (p=0.019) was independently associated with CHDs. Mother with passive smoking exposure had 1.5 times risk of developing CHDs compared to those who were not exposed. Conclusions: Passive smoking is significantly associated with CHDs.