Despite the increasing awareness of harmful effects of smoking in pregnancy
as well as severe negative health consequences of passive smoking in early
childhood, prevalence rates of smoking in young women, their partners and in
parents of young children remain quite high or even increase in Europe.
Successful intervention strategies to increase quitting rates in these target
groups are available but are regional limited.
Intervention effects could further be improved by both a better cooperation
of professional groups in the health care sector and the exchange of effective
intervention measures.
The cooperation of 5 EC member states and Bulgaria as a new member state
in the project should lead to the establishment of an EC-wide network focussing on smoking in pregnancy and in
parents of newborns, which may in turn form the basis of a European Code of Practice.
With respect to this important element of the
Europe Against Cancer Programme.
All institutions cooperating for the project have already gained experience for
several years in the field of smoking prevention for pregnant women and parents of
newborns. Due to differences in health care systems anti-smoking interventions have
focused on different target groups as intermediaries.
It is shared knowledge, that women stop smoking spontaneously during pregnancy at
greater rates than at any other time in life. But it is also evident from studies that
postpartum relapse rates are high.
It is concluded that
- postpartum relapse may be reduced by using measures
to help women understanding their own personal risks and
developing intervention approaches to meet their needs,
- the overall aim should be the implementation of cessation
interventions spanning the entire period of gestation to
effect larger changes in smoking rates,
- future research should observe women after childbirth
to determine long-term effects of prenatal interventions and
to test postpartum interventions,
- the needs for offering health professionals information,
material, training in skills that will allow them to intervene
effectively.
The EURO-scip project takes into account these conclusions by putting emphasis on
a regular information of health professionals (newsletter),
by analysing national intervention approaches spanning gestation and postpartum period
(status reports),and by creating strategies to increase
intervention effectiveness (National/European guidelines).
For more information see project description as pdf-file.
