• About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    • ObGFirst
  • Alerts
  • OB
  • 2T US Atlas
  • The Genome
  • GYN
    • GYN
    • Sexual Health
  • Primary Care
  • Your Practice
  • GrandRounds
  • My Bookshelf
  • COVID-19
About Us Contact Us Login ObGFirst
  • Alerts
  • OB
  • 2T US Atlas
  • The Genome
  • GYN
    • GYN
    • Sexual Health
  • Primary Care
  • Your Practice
  • GrandRounds
  • My Bookshelf
  • COVID-19
Grand Rounds

What Are the Effects of Prenatal E-Cigarette Exposure on Infant Neurodevelopment?

image_pdfFavoriteLoadingFavorite

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

  • Prenatal cigarette exposure has been shown to lead to neurodevelopmental deficits
  • Froggatt et al. (EClinicalMedicine, 2021) compared neurobehavioural outcomes in newborns exposed to cigarettes vs e-cigarettes

METHODS:

  • Case-control study
  • Participants
    • Infants approximately 1 month old
  • Exposures
    • Prenatal cigarettes
    • Prenatal e-cigarettes
    • Neither
  • Analysis
    • Potential covariates (maternal age, infant sex, primiparity, additional household smokers, stress, depression and anxiety) were assessed
  • Primary outcomes
    • Birth outcomes
      • Gestation | Birthweight | Head circumference
    • Scores on the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS)
      • Reflexes | Regulation | Motor maturity, orientation, range of states and automatic stability

RESULTS:

  • E-cigarette exposure: 10 infants | cigarette exposure: 29 | no exposure: 44
  • Both cigarette and e-cigarette exposed infants had a significantly greater number of abnormal reflexes
    • Cigarettes: P = 0.001
    • E-cigarettes: P = 0.002
  • Compared to non-exposure, cigarette exposed infants performed significantly worse for
    • Self-regulation: P = 0.010
    • Motor maturity: P = 0.002
  • Compared to non-exposure, e-cigarette exposed infants also had decreased motor maturity, but only marginally worse self-regulation (not-significant)
    • Self-regulation: P = 0.057
    • Motor maturity: P = 0.036
  • Compared with non-exposure, cigarette exposed infants had significantly
    • Lower birthweight: P = 0.021
    • Reduced head circumference: P = 0.008
  • However, compared with non-exposure, e-cigarette exposed infants had no difference in
    • Birthweight
    • Gestation
    • Head circumference

CONCLUSION:

  • Infants exposed to e-cigarettes prenatally do not appear to have worse birth outcomes than non-exposed infants
  • However, exposed children do have abnormal primitive reflexes and marginally decreased self-regulation abilities
  • The authors conclude

This is the first study assessing neurobehavioural outcomes associated with prenatal nicotine exposure through cigarettes or e-cigarettes at one month old

…the present findings indicate that there could be harm associated with e-cigarette use and therefore the ultimate aim must be to stop smoking, without the use of e-cigarettes. Indeed, caution should probably be applied to all NRT products

Given the predictive nature of newborn assessments, in particular the NBAS, the notion that nicotine by itself is relatively harmless, is a concept that needs to be further questioned and further investigated

Learn More – Primary Sources:

The effects of prenatal cigarette and e-cigarette exposure on infant neurobehaviour: A comparison to a control group

Want to stay on top of key guidelines and research papers?

ObGFirst® – Try It Free! »

image_pdfFavoriteLoadingFavorite
< Previous
All Grand Rounds Posts
Next >

Related ObG Topics:

Time for a Second Look: Are the “New Tobacco” Products Safer than in Years Past?
Does Prenatal Smoking Increase the Risk of GDM?
Does Smoking During Pregnancy Increase Risk of Bone Fractures in Offspring?

Sections

  • Alerts
  • OB
  • GYN
    • GYN
    • Sexual Health
  • 2T US Atlas
  • The Genome
  • Primary Care
  • Your Practice
  • Grand Rounds
  • My Bookshelf
  • COVID-19

Are you an
ObG Insider?

Get specially curated clinical summaries delivered to your inbox every week for free

  • Site Map/
  • © ObG Project/
  • Terms and Conditions/
  • Privacy/
  • Contact Us/
© ObG Project
SSL Certificate


  • Already an ObGFirst Member?
    Welcome back

    Log In

    Want to sign up?
    Get guideline notifications
    CME Included

    Sign Up

Sign In

Lost your password?

Sign Up for ObGFirst and Stay Ahead

  • - Professional guideline notifications
  • - Daily summary of a clinically relevant
    research paper
  • - Includes 1 hour of CME every month

ObGFirst Free Trial

Already a Member of ObGFirst®?

Please log in to ObGFirst to access the 2T US Atlas

Password Trouble?

Not an ObGFirst® Member Yet?

  • - Access 2T US Atlas
  • - Guideline notifications
  • - Daily research paper summaries
  • - And lots more!
ObGFirst Free Trial

Media - Internet

Computer System Requirements

OBG Project CME requires a modern web browser (Internet Explorer 10+, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge). Certain educational activities may require additional software to view multimedia, presentation, or printable versions of their content. These activities will be marked as such and will provide links to the required software. That software may be: Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft PowerPoint, Windows Media Player, or Real Networks Real One Player.

Disclosure of Unlabeled Use

This educational activity may contain discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA. The planners of this activity do not recommend the use of any agent outside of the labeled indications.

The opinions expressed in the educational activity are those of the faculty and do not necessarily represent the views of the planners. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.

Disclaimer

Participants have an implied responsibility to use the newly acquired information to enhance patient outcomes and their own professional development. The information
presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patient’s conditions and possible contraindications and/or dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities.

Jointly provided by

NOT ENOUGH CME HOURS

It appears you don't have enough CME Hours to take this Post-Test. Feel free to buy additional CME hours or upgrade your current CME subscription plan

Subscribe

JOIN OBGFIRST AND GET CME/CE CREDITS

One of the benefits of an ObGFirst subscription is the ability to earn CME/CE credits from the ObG entries you read. Tap the button to learn more about ObGFirst

Learn More
Leaving ObG Website

You are now leaving the ObG website and on your way to PRIORITY at UCSF, an independent website. Therefore, we are not responsible for the content or availability of this site