Maternal smoking during pregnancy and primary headache in school-aged children: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: It is not known whether smoking by mothers during pregnancy is associated with headache in their offspring. METHODS: Two prospective cohorts of 869 children aged 10-11 years from Ribeirão Preto (RP) and 805 children aged 7-9 years from São Luís (SL) were studied. Data on maternal smoking were collected at birth. Primary headache was defined as a reporting of ≥2 episodes of headache in the past 2 weeks, without any associated organic symptoms. RESULTS: Prevalence of headache was 28.1% in RP and 13.1% in SL as reported by the mothers and 17.5% in RP and 29.4% in SL as reported by the children. Agreement between mothers' report and children's self-report of primary headache in the child was poor. After adjustment, children whose mothers smoked ≥10 cigarettes per day during pregnancy presented higher prevalence of primary headache than their counterparts in both cohorts, as reported by the mother and in RP as reported by the children. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with headache in 7- to 11-year-olds. With one exception, the consistency of the results, despite poor agreement between maternal and children reports of headache, indicates that maternal smoking during pregnancy may contribute to headaches in their children.

Prevalence of non-communicable diseases in Brazilian children: follow-up at school age of two Brazilian birth cohorts of the 1990's.

BACKGROUND: Few cohort studies have been conducted in low and middle-income countries to investigate non-communicable diseases among school-aged children. This article aims to describe the methodology of two birth cohorts, started in 1994 in Ribeirão Preto (RP), a more developed city, and in 1997/98 in São Luís (SL), a less developed town. METHODS: Prevalences of some non-communicable diseases during the first follow-up of these cohorts were estimated and compared. Data on singleton live births were obtained at birth (2858 in RP and 2443 in SL). The follow-up at school age was conducted in RP in 2004/05, when the children were 9-11 years old and in SL in 2005/06, when the children were 7-9 years old. Follow-up rates were 68.7% in RP (790 included) and 72.7% in SL (673 participants). The groups of low (<2500 g) and high (≥ 4250 g) birthweight were oversampled and estimates were corrected by weighting. RESULTS: In the more developed city there was a higher percentage of non-nutritive sucking habits (69.1% vs 47.9%), lifetime bottle use (89.6% vs 68.3%), higher prevalence of primary headache in the last 15 days (27.9% vs 13.0%), higher positive skin tests for allergens (44.3% vs 25.3%) and higher prevalence of overweight (18.2% vs 3.6%), obesity (9.5% vs 1.8%) and hypertension (10.9% vs 4.6%). In the less developed city there was a larger percentage of children with below average cognitive function (28.9% vs 12.2%), mental health problems (47.4% vs 38.4%), depression (21.6% vs 6.0%) and underweight (5.8% vs 3.6%). There was no difference in the prevalence of bruxism, recurrent abdominal pain, asthma and bronchial hyperresponsiveness between cities. CONCLUSIONS: Some non-communicable diseases were highly prevalent, especially in the more developed city. Some high rates suggest that the burden of non-communicable diseases will be high in the future, especially mental health problems.

Peso ao nascer e crescimento físico do lactente / Birth weigh and infant growth

Esta revisäo objetiva discutir a influência do peso ao nascer sobre o crescimento do lactente. Os autores analisam e discutem alguns fatores relacionados com o peso, ao nascer, ao crescimento, à recuperaçäo do crescimento dos recém-nascidos de baixo peso, descritos na literatura internacional, e descrevem alguns estudos brasileiros. Chamam a atençäo para alguns pontos controvertidos na literatura, bem como para o pequeno número de pesquisas desenvolvidas no Brasil.