Smoking during pregnancy and diabetes mellitus in a British longitudinal birth cohort

Abstract
We used data are from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS),4 based on the Perinatal Mortality Survey (PMS) of about 17 000 births from 3 to 9 March 1958. The first sweep of the study in 1965 had 15 396 responses. The cohort remained generally representative at age 33 years (n=11 359).5 Missing data reduced the proportion in social class V from 6.4% in sweep 1 to 5.3%. Ethics committee approval was obtained for research involving medical examinations, and cohort members signed consent forms at age 33 years allowing access to medical records.