Maternal Smoking in Chicago: A Community-Level Analysis

Birth certificate data were employed to determine the prevalence of maternal smoking in Chicago communities by race and ethnicity. For purposes of comparison, we present data for the U.S. and the city of Chicago as a whole. Across the city of Chicago, 5.6% of women smoked during pregnancy, a rate much lower than the national average of 13.9%. The maternal smoking rate among non-Hispanic (NH) Black women (11.8%) was more than twice that of NH White women (4.5%) and almost 10 times that of Hispanic women (1.2%). For predominantly NH White and NH Black communities, we observed a significant, negative relationship between household income and the percentage of women who smoke during pregnancy. The prevalence of smoking among NH Black women in Chicago was particularly high, demonstrating an unmet need for appropriate interventions.