A study released by the University of Bristol on the 27th said that women smoking during pregnancy may increase the risk of congenital heart disease in their children.
The international team led by the scholars of the university conducted a detailed analysis of the relevant fertility and health data of more than 230000 families in many European countries. The researchers compared and evaluated the influence of maternal body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake and other factors on the risk of congenital heart disease in offspring. The related results have been published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Research results show that children born to women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from congenital heart disease. The study also found that if women were overweight or even obese in the early pregnancy, or drank alcohol during pregnancy, it may not be the cause of congenital heart disease in their offspring.
Researchers suggest that women should not smoke at their childbearing age, and that both mothers and fathers should maintain a healthy weight and limit alcohol intake before and during pregnancy.
Deborah Lawler, a professor at the University of Bristol who oversaw the study, said that the results of the study further showed that more support for smoking cessation was needed worldwide. In the future, if we can understand the specific mechanism that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of children suffering from congenital heart disease, it will help to develop new methods to prevent this disease.
Xinhua News Agency, London, May 27, by wire (reporter Zhang Jiawei)
