ObjectivesPregnancy motivates women to try stopping smoking, but little is known about timing of their quit attempts and how quitting intentions change during pregnancy and postpartum. Using longitudinal data, this study aimed to document women’s smoking and quitting behaviour throughout pregnancy and after delivery.DesignLongitudinal cohort survey with questionnaires at baseline (8–26 weeks’ gestation), late pregnancy (34–36 weeks) and 3 months after delivery.SettingTwo maternity hospitals in one National Health Service hospital trust, Nottingham, England.Participants850 pregnant women, aged 16 years or over, who were current smokers or had smoked in the 3 months before pregnancy, were recruited between August 2011 and August 2012.Outcome measuresSelf-reported smoking behaviour, quit attempts and quitting intentions.ResultsSmoking rates, adjusting for non-response at follow-up, were 57.4% (95% CI 54.1 to 60.7) at baseline, 59.1% (95% CI 54.9 to 63.4) in late pregnancy and 67.1% (95% CI 62.7 to 71.5) 3 months postpartum. At baseline, 272 of 488 current smokers had tried to quit since becoming pregnant (55.7%, 95% CI 51.3 to 60.1); 51.3% (95% CI 44.7 to 58.0) tried quitting between baseline and late pregnancy and 27.4% (95% CI 21.7 to 33.2) after childbirth. The percentage who intended to quit within the next month fell as pregnancy progressed, from 40.4% (95% CI 36.1 to 44.8) at baseline to 29.7% (95% CI 23.8 to 35.6) in late pregnancy and 14.2% (95% CI 10.0 to 18.3) postpartum. Postpartum relapse was lower among women who quit in the 3 months before pregnancy (17.8%, 95% CI 6.1 to 29.4) than those who stopped between baseline and late pregnancy (42.9%, 95% CI 24.6 to 61.3).ConclusionsMany pregnant smokers make quit attempts throughout pregnancy and postpartum, but intention to quit decreases over time; there is no evidence that smoking rates fall during gestation.

We present two enhancements to existing methods for visualizing vital statistics data. Data from the Human Mortality Database were used and vital statistics from England and Wales are used for illustration. The simpler of these methods involves coplotting mean age of death with its variance, and the more complex of these methods is to present data as a contour plot. The coplot method shows the effect of the 20th century’s epidemiological transitions. The contour plot method allows more complex and subtle age, period and cohort effects to be seen.The contour plot shows the effects of broad improvements in public health over the 20th century, including vast reductions in rates of childhood mortality, reduced baseline mortality risks during adulthood and the postponement of higher mortality risks to older ages. They also show the effects of the two world wars and the 1918 influenza pandemic on men of fighting age, women and children. The contour plots also show a cohort effect for people born around 1918, suggesting a possible epigenetic effect of parental exposure to the pandemic which shortened the cohort’s lifespan and which has so far received little attention.Although this article focuses on data from England and Wales, the associated online appendices contain equivalent visualizations for almost 50 series of data available on the Human Mortality Database. We expect that further analyses of these visualizations will reveal further insights into global public health.

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Background Limited research exists on interest in and use of smoking cessation support in pregnancy and postpartum. Methods A longitudinal cohort of pregnant smokers and recent ex-smokers were recruited in Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom (N = 850). Data were collected at 8–26 weeks gestation, 34–36 weeks gestation, and 3 months postpartum and used as three cross-sectional surveys. Interest and use of cessation support and belief and behavior measures were collected at all waves. Key data were adjusted for nonresponse and analyzed descriptively, and multiple regression was used to identify associations. Results In early and late pregnancy, 44% (95% CI 40% to 48%) and 43% (95% CI 37% to 49%) of smokers, respectively, were interested in cessation support with 33% (95% CI 27% to 39%) interested postpartum. In early pregnancy, 43% of smokers reported discussing cessation with a midwife and, in late pregnancy, 27% did so. Over one-third (38%) did not report discussing quitting with a health professional during pregnancy. Twenty-seven percent of smokers reported using any National Health Service (NHS) cessation support and 12% accessed NHS Stop Smoking Services during pregnancy. Lower quitting confidence (self-efficacy), higher confidence in stopping with support, higher quitting motivation, and higher age were associated with higher interest in support (ps ≤ .001). A recent quit attempt and greater interest in support was associated with speaking to a health professional about quitting and use of NHS cessation support (ps ≤ .001). Conclusions When asked in early or late pregnancy, about half of pregnant smokers were interested in cessation support, though most did not engage. Cessation support should be offered throughout pregnancy and after delivery. Implications There is relatively high interest in cessation support in early and late pregnancy and postpartum among smokers; however, a much smaller proportion of pregnant or postpartum women access any cessation support, highlighting a gap between interest and engagement. Reflecting women’s interest, offers of cessation support should be provided throughout pregnancy and after delivery. Increasing motivation to quit and confidence in quitting with assistance may enhance interest in support, and promoting the discussion of stopping smoking between women and health practitioners may contribute to higher support engagement rates.

BackgroundScotland has higher mortality rates than the rest of Western Europe (rWE), with more cardiovascular disease and cancer among older adults; and alcohol-related and drug-related deaths, suicide and violence among younger adults.MethodsWe obtained sex, age-specific and year-specific all-cause mortality rates for Scotland and other populations, and explored differences in mortality both visually and numerically.ResultsScotland's age-specific mortality was higher than the rest of the UK (rUK) since 1950, and has increased. Between the 1950s and 2000s, ‘excess deaths’ by age 80 per 100 000 population associated with living in Scotland grew from 4341 to 7203 compared with rUK, and from 4132 to 8828 compared with rWE. UK-wide mortality risk compared with rWE also increased, from 240 ‘excess deaths’ in the 1950s to 2320 in the 2000s. Cohorts born in the 1940s and 1950s throughout the UK including Scotland had lower mortality risk than comparable rWE populations, especially for males. Mortality rates were higher in Scotland than rUK and rWE among younger adults from the 1990s onwards suggesting an age–period interaction.ConclusionsWorsening mortality among young adults in the past 30 years reversed a relative advantage evident for those born between 1950 and 1960. Compared with rWE, Scotland and rUK have followed similar trends but Scotland has started from a worse position and had worse working age–period effects in the 1990s and 2000s.

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Background Acanthosis nigricans (AN) is a dermatologic condition associated with hyperinsulinemia, a marker of insulin resistance that is the principal abnormality in metabolic syndrome (MetS). We examined the association of AN with the clustering of MetS components. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban school-based health center in New Mexico. Students without diabetes were evaluated for AN, a family history of type 2 diabetes, body mass index (BMI), and MetS components. The clustering of MetS components by BMI category and AN status was assessed by comparing the group means of summed average z-scores of fasting insulin, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein- cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure among the students. A multivariate model with BMI category and AN status controlling for Tanner stage was performed to identify the variables associated with the clustering of MetS components. Results Complete data were available for 90 children (age, 9.7 ± 1.4 years; 94 % Hispanic; 60 % female). In multivariate modeling of MetS cluster z-score, significant differences were found between the students with BMI < 85th percentile [−0.27; 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) = − 0.42 to − 0.11] and (a) the students with BMI 85th – 94.9th percentile with AN (0.74; 95 % CI = 0.17 – 1.31) and (b) the students with BMI ≥ 95th percentile with AN (0.86; 95 % CI = 0.54 – 1.18). No significant differences in the MetS cluster z-score were seen between the students with BMI < 85th percentile and those with BMI 85th – 94.9th percentile without AN (0.24; 95 % CI = − 0.33 to 0.81) or those with BMI ≥ 95th percentile without AN (0.31; 95 % CI = − 0.13 to 0.75). Conclusions Overweight/obese Hispanic elementary school-aged children with AN exhibit clustering of MetS components and could benefit from early intervention.