Smoking During Pregnancy can Lead to Hearing Loss in Children

Smoking during pregnancy can escalate the risk of hearing loss in children, researchers warn.

Dr. Michael Weitzman of the New York University School of Medicine and his team examined causes behind sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) among children. For the study, they used data from the U.S. National Health Examination Survey, conducted between 2005 and 2006. (Damage to hair cells in the inner ear can cause SNHL).

For the study, nearly 1,000 children aged between 12 and 15 were asked to take an audiometric test, a screening method used to check hearing loss or hearing levels. Serum continine (an alkaloid in tobacco and a metabolite of nicotine) levels in the participants were measured and recorded. Through interviews with children and their parents, researchers collected information about the participants who were exposed to nicotine while in their mother's wombs.

Results showed that more than 16 percent of the teens were exposed to nicotine before birth.  According to the study published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery, maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of hearing loss in children and triples the risk of having a "unilateral low-frequency hearing loss" in them.

The current study supports, a previous report published in 2011 that found that passive smoking played a major role in upping the risk of hearing loss among teens. Another report published in 2010 also revealed that hearing loss had affected more US children in the recent past. The study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that hearing loss among U.S. teens had gone up 4.5 percent in 2005-06 when compared to the percentage in the period 1988-94.

Smoking during pregnancy causes many health problems for the child. Premature birth, low birth weight, cot death, asthma, infections, stillbirth and autism are some of the risks. Health experts have always advised pregnant women, or those planning to conceive to abstain from smoking. However, nearly 14 percent of women in the U.S. continue smoking even after a pregnancy confirmation.