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Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Birth Weight: A Genetically-Informed Approach Comparing Multiple Raters

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Abstract

Maternal smoking during pregnancy (SDP) is a significant public health concern with adverse consequences to the health and well-being of the fetus. There is considerable debate about the best method of assessing SDP, including birth/medical records, timeline follow-back approaches, multiple reporters, and biological verification (e.g., cotinine). This is particularly salient for genetically-informed approaches where it is not always possible or practical to do a prospective study starting during the prenatal period when concurrent biological specimen samples can be collected with ease. In a sample of families (N = 173) specifically selected for sibling pairs discordant for prenatal smoking exposure, we: (1) compare rates of agreement across different types of report—maternal report of SDP, paternal report of maternal SDP, and SDP contained on birth records from the Department of Vital Statistics; (2) examine whether SDP is predictive of birth weight outcomes using our best SDP report as identified via step (1); and (3) use a sibling-comparison approach that controls for genetic and familial influences that siblings share in order to assess the effects of SDP on birth weight. Results show high agreement between reporters and support the utility of retrospective report of SDP. Further, we replicate a causal association between SDP and birth weight, wherein SDP results in reduced birth weight even when accounting for genetic and familial confounding factors via a sibling comparison approach.

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Funding

This work supported by NIH Grants: DA023134 (Knopik), DA17671 (Knopik), AA07728 (Heath), AA09022 (Heath), AA11998 (Heath), HD049024 (Heath), AA017688 (Heath), AA021492 (Heath). Dr. Marceau is supported by T32 DA016184. Dr. Palmer is supported by K01 AA021113 and L30 TR001045. Dr. Smith is supported by T32 MH19927.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Behavioral Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, Rhode Island Hospital, Coro West Suite 204, 1 Hoppin St, Providence, RI, 02903, USA

    Valerie S. Knopik, Kristine Marceau, Rohan H. C. Palmer & Taylor F. Smith

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Valerie S. Knopik & Rohan H. C. Palmer

  3. Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Kristine Marceau

  4. Department of Psychology and Child Development, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA

    Taylor F. Smith

  5. Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

    Andrew C. Heath

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  1. Valerie S. Knopik
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  2. Kristine Marceau
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  4. Taylor F. Smith
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Correspondence to Valerie S. Knopik.

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Valerie S. Knopik, Kristine Marceau, Rohan H.C. Palmer, Taylor F. Smith, and Andrew C. Heath declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Knopik, V.S., Marceau, K., Palmer, R.H.C. et al. Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Birth Weight: A Genetically-Informed Approach Comparing Multiple Raters. Behav Genet 46, 353–364 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-015-9750-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-015-9750-6

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