Passive Smoking and Height Growth of Preadolescent Children

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Abstract
Berkey C S (Department of Environmental Science and Physiology, Harvard University School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA), Ware J H, Speizer F E, Ferris B G Jr. Passive smoking and height growth of preadolescent children. International Journal of Epidemiology 1984, 13: 454–458. The attained height and height growth rate of 9273 children participating in a longitudinal study of the health effects of air pollutants were analysed to assess the association between passive exposure to cigarette smoke and physical growth between 6 and 11 years of age. Children were measured annually for 2 to 6 years. Each height measurement was adjusted for sex and age by the NCHS anthropometric standards. Each child‘s adjusted heights were then re-expressed as level of attained height and growth rate. Attained height exhibited a dose-response relationship with amount of current maternal cigarette smoking (pin utero and/or during infancy and the preschool years.