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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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CDC: Smoking by Pregnant Missouri Women Costing State Millions Per Year [11/08-1]
Excerpts from: CDC: Smoking by pregnant Missouri women costing state millions
Kansas City Star [11/04/04]
Missouri has one of the nation's highest rates of pregnant mothers who smoke, which costs the state up to $10 million a year in otherwise preventable neonatal health care, according to a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers said 18.2 percent of expectant mothers in Missouri smoke, which is the eighth-highest rate in the country. Still, the Missouri rate is slightly lower than it was in 1990.
Nationwide, 11.4 percent of pregnant women smoke, the study found.
Results of the study, which examined maternal smoking rates between 1990 and 2002, were published in the Oct. 8 edition of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
"Within the text of this alarming report is a sentence that simply says, 'These costs are preventable,'" said Paula F. Nickelson, director of the Community Health Division of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. "That sentence is a call to action for public health and health care providers."
The report also shows that 27.2 percent of pregnant women between the ages of 15 and 19 in the state smoke, making Missouri one of 10 states that saw a reversal of previous declines among that age group.
Nickelson said her agency is trying to convince more health care providers to routinely counsel patients not to smoke - especially those who are pregnant. More than 200 health care providers attended regional training sponsored by the department last fall and again in the spring.
She said her department plans to expand the training program statewide.
Missouri has received funding from the CDC to begin planning for a statewide telephone hotline with information on quiting, which is expected to become available next July, Nickelson said.
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