SEX-SPECIFIC IMPACT OF MATERNAL SMOKING ON CHILD RESPIRATORY HEALTH IN CAMEROON, SENEGAL AND MALAWI

The consequences of environmental tobacco smoke (especially maternal smoking) on child respiratory health are very severe. Moreover, high fertility rates in Africa mean rising rates of female smoking in Africa translate into increase of maternal smoking, with devastating consequences for fetus and child health. Besides, underlying sex differentials often are critical to better understanding of child health. Thus the research question: Does maternal smoking in Africa engender sex differentials among children as far as their respiratory health is concerned? The study addresses issues like determination of the net impact of maternal smoking on child respiratory health among several confounding factors and identification of tobacco products with severest impact on child respiratory health. The following hypothesis is tested: “there is no health risk variation between boys and girls as far as respiratory infections are concerned, unless the mother of the child is smoking”. The analysis uses a sample of 37 274 children less than 5 years of age from the most recent DHS surveys in Cameroon, Senegal and Malawi, including 328 born to 226 smoking mothers. The Poisson regression is used to model the number of symptoms suffered by children during survey period.