Pennsylvania Nurse, Front Page 2017 Issue 2 | Page 7

By Susan E. Bare, PhD(c), CNM, RN
Stabler Department of Nursing, York College of Pennsylvania
Annette DeVito Dabbs, PhD, RN
Department Chair, Acute & Tertiary Care, School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh
Susan M. Sereika, PhD
Center for Research and Evaluation, Health & Community Systems
School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania State Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s
Commission on Accreditation.
The planners and authors for this continuing education activity have declared -no conflict of interest.
Successful completion is reading the article and submitting the post-test.
partum tobacco use which can be
used to target relapse. the postpartum relapse rate was
52.2% (Rockhill et al., 2016).
Background During the first year after the
birth of a child, women face
challenges and stressors, some of
which may be anticipated by new
mothers but many are not. These
daily stressors of motherhood are
thought to contribute to relapse
to smoking after the birth. While
several non-modifiable maternal
sociodemographic characteristics
have consistently been associated
with postpartum smoking relapse,
including maternal age, race, and
education level (Rockhill et al.,
2016), contradictory evidence for
an association between relaspe
and other potentially modifiable
predictors exist, including ma-
ternal mood, level of stress, and
partner or household smoking sta-
tus (Levine, Cheng, Marcus, Ka-
larchian, & Emery, 2016; Rockhill
et al., 2016).. The purpose of this
study was to identify significant
For 2007-2010, women of child-
bearing age residing in the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania
tended to smoke at higher rates
(15.0% during the last three
months of pregnancy and 21.7%
within four months postpartum)
than residents of approximately
26 other states in the U.S. (12.1%
during the last three months of
pregnancy and 17.1% within four
months postpartum). During this
same time, the smoking cessation
rate during pregnancy for Penn-
sylvania women was 47.1% (Tong
et al., 2013). While cessation
during pregnancy is encourag-
ing, the reality is that smoke-free
behaviors are rarely sustained
after delivery. Nationwide, the
associated smoking relapse rate
was 47.2%. For Pennsylvania,
perinatal predictors of relapse
to smoking reported by women
in Pennsylvania in the hope of
gaining a better understanding
of factors to target to reduce the
incidence and negative impact of
smoking relapse on new mothers,
their newborns, and families.
Methods
This study analyzed data from
the Pregnancy Risk Assessment
Monitoring System (PRAMS,
https://www.cdc.gov/prams/
index.htm), a population-based
surveillance system initiated in
1987 by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) to
monitor and promote perinatal
and newborn health (Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention,
2008). New mothers are requested
to complete the one-time survey
within the year following the
birth. The CDC-PRAMS protocol
defines how to randomly gener-
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