Grant Awarded to Reduce Smoking Among Pregnant Women
CINCINNATI -- Every Child Succeeds (ECS), a program founded to ensure an optimal start in life for at-risk, first-time mothers and their children, has received a $334,000 grant to reduce smoking among pregnant women, decrease environmental smoke exposure for high-risk infants, and reduce smoking among other adults in these infants' lives.
The grant is for one year, but if the program is successful, ECS can apply for an additional two years of funding.
ECS is a collaboration among 21 community agencies, including three founding partners: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency/Head Start, and United Way & Community Chest. The program contracts with community-based agencies to provide home visitation services from professional, family-support workers.
ECS, which received the grant from the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, will serve as lead agency under the grant for the Assuring Smokefree Homes (ASH) Program. The program will involve implementation of two curricula already identified as "best practice" programs into the ECS home visitation program in Hamilton, Clermont, Butler and Brown counties. The curricula are the "5 A's" counseling program for pregnant women, used by the Ohio Department of Health, and the "Make Yours a Fresh Start Family" program for new mothers, developed by the American Cancer Society.
"The addition of these two well-established, targeted smoking cessation programs is a logical extension of current ECS activities," says Judith Van Ginkel, PhD, ECS president. "Research demonstrates that home visitation reduces maternal tobacco use."
ECS will coordinate training of all home visitors, provide training to day-care providers, coordinate home visits for intensive smoking counseling and prevention, and provide incentives for smoking mothers to reduce tobacco use.
The state of Ohio ranks third highest among all states in percentage of residents who smoke. Ohio is also above the national average in smoking-related adverse outcomes, such as lung cancer deaths and low-birth weight children. About 25 percent of Ohio women report smoking while pregnant, and 36 percent of financially disadvantaged women report smoking while pregnant. Maternal smoking accounts for about 14 percent of preterm deliveries and 10 percent of all infant deaths. Smoking during pregnancy doubles the risk of delivering a low birth weight infant.
Tobacco-related disease rates in southwestern Ohio are even higher than those observed elsewhere in the state. Hamilton County, for example, experienced a low birth weight rate of 8.6 percent from 1996-98, compared to a statewide rate of 7.7 percent and a national rate of 7.5 percent.
The Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation awarded 28 grants totaling $7 million for prevention and cessation programs throughout the state. Through the ASH program, ECS aims to reduce smoking during pregnancy by 50 percent, reduce exposure to secondhand smoke among infants by 20 percent and reduce adults smoking by 12 percent. More than 26,000 mothers, infants, other adults, day care providers and parents with infants in day care will receive assistance through the program.
The first analysis of ECS, which was released in September, showed that 94 percent of mothers in the program dramatically reduce tobacco use during pregnancy.
>Every Child Succeeds (ECS), a program founded to ensure an optimal start in life for at-risk, first-time mothers and their children, has received a $334,000 grant to reduce smoking among pregnant women, decrease environmental smoke exposure for high-risk infants, and reduce smoking among other adults in these infants' lives.
The grant is for one year, but if the program is successful, ECS can apply for an additional two years of funding.
ECS is a collaboration among 21 community agencies, including three founding partners: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency/Head Start, and United Way & Community Chest. The program contracts with community-based agencies to provide home visitation services from professional, family-support workers.
ECS, which received the grant from the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, will serve as lead agency under the grant for the Assuring Smokefree Homes (ASH) Program. The program will involve implementation of two curricula already identified as "best practice" programs into the ECS home visitation program in Hamilton, Clermont, Butler and Brown counties. The curricula are the "5 A's" counseling program for pregnant women, used by the Ohio Department of Health, and the "Make Yours a Fresh Start Family" program for new mothers, developed by the American Cancer Society.
"The addition of these two well-established, targeted smoking cessation programs is a logical extension of current ECS activities," says Judith Van Ginkel, PhD, ECS president. "Research demonstrates that home visitation reduces maternal tobacco use."
ECS will coordinate training of all home visitors, provide training to day-care providers, coordinate home visits for intensive smoking counseling and prevention, and provide incentives for smoking mothers to reduce tobacco use.
The state of Ohio ranks third highest among all states in percentage of residents who smoke. Ohio is also above the national average in smoking-related adverse outcomes, such as lung cancer deaths and low-birth weight children. About 25 percent of Ohio women report smoking while pregnant, and 36 percent of financially disadvantaged women report smoking while pregnant. Maternal smoking accounts for about 14 percent of preterm deliveries and 10 percent of all infant deaths. Smoking during pregnancy doubles the risk of delivering a low birth weight infant.
Tobacco-related disease rates in southwestern Ohio are even higher than those observed elsewhere in the state. Hamilton County, for example, experienced a low birth weight rate of 8.6 percent from 1996-98, compared to a statewide rate of 7.7 percent and a national rate of 7.5 percent.
The Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation awarded 28 grants totaling $7 million for prevention and cessation programs throughout the state. Through the ASH program, ECS aims to reduce smoking during pregnancy by 50 percent, reduce exposure to secondhand smoke among infants by 20 percent and reduce adults smoking by 12 percent. More than 26,000 mothers, infants, other adults, day care providers and parents with infants in day care will receive assistance through the program.
The first analysis of ECS, which was released in September, showed that 94 percent of mothers in the program dramatically reduce tobacco use during pregnancy.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer, 513-636-4656,
jfeuer@cchmc.org
