Revision to 'smoking at booking' data on Births and Babies web pages.

Data on 'smoking in pregnancy' are available on the Births&Babies web pages and were last updated on 27th July 2006.  These data on smoking behaviour are based on self-reported information obtained from mothers at their ante-natal booking visit in the community or at hospital (source SMR02, maternity hospital discharge summary) and again at time of the health visitor's first visit (source CPSP_PS, Child Health Surveillance Programme'Pre School). 

The analyses being revised, is the 'smoking at booking' data for the period 1998-2003, affecting mainly Scotland and NHS Lothian, and to a lesser degree a few other NHS boards.  The two most recent years (y/e March 2004 and 2005) are not affected.

Why has the data been revised
The 'smoking at booking' data item was introduced to SMR02 in 1993/94 and has not always been well recorded.  During the period between 1998-2003, NHS Lothian experienced difficulties in the recording of this data item (mainly at SMMP/New RIE) resulting in a large proportion of 'not known' being recorded.  At that time, enquiry and analyses suggested that it was appropriate to re-code the 'not known' proportionally between the 'never', 'current' and 'former' categories, based on the cases where this information was recorded and this was reflected in the analyses published.  Previous to this year's update the data published on the website included only number and percentage of women for both 'smoking at booking' and 'health visitor's first visit' with added comments on concern over data quality/completeness.

When reviewing the level of recording of this data item more recently, we found that although an improvement in recording is seen at NHS Lothian, there are still problems in a number of NHS boards.  Therefore this year we decided to present the data in a different way so that the reader, in addition to having access to the proportion of women smoking, can also see the level of recording of all responses including 'missing' and 'not known'.  The way the data have been presented also allows the reader to compare the two systems i.e. 'smoking at booking' from SMR02 and whether the mother is recorded as being a smoker at the health visitor's first visit, from CHSP-PS.  However, when producing the analyses, although we planned to use the 'raw' SMR02 data, we inadvertently used the re-coded NHS Lothian data instead. 

Impact of revision
This revision affects only 'Smoking at Booking' for Scotland and mainly NHS Lothian for period 1998-2003.  Other NHS board areas are also affected to a lesser degree, as the analyses is published by NHS board of treatment.  The revisions affect Figures 1a, 2a, 3a and 4a available at the 'Smoking at Booking and at Health Visitor's first visit' available at and the table titled 'Smoking by Age' .

The main changes are shown on the tables below

 

Smoking at Booking: Scotland (Figure 1a)

	Published	Revised
1998	29.3	28.7
1999	28.3	27.6
2000	27.4	26.6
2001	27.5	25.4
2002	27.5	25.5
2003	26.1	25.3

 

Smoking at Booking by SIMD: Scotland 2000 (Figure 2a)

	Published	Revised
SIMD 1 (least deprived)	10.8	9.7
SIMD 2	16.9	16.2
SIMD 3	24.4	23.7
SIMD 4	33.3	32.6
SIMD 5 (most deprived)	45.9	45.3
SIMD (not known)	17.6	16.1

 

Smoking at Booking by NHS Board: y/e 31^st March 2000 (Figure 3a)

	Published	Revised
Scotland	27.4	26.6
Argyll & Clyde	27.2	27.2
Ayrshire & Arran	30.8	30.8
Borders	26.0	25.1
Dumfries & Galloway	24.9	24.9
Fife	31.6	31.5
Forth Valley	25.9	25.9
Grampian	22.3	22.3
Greater Glasgow	31.2	31.2
Highland	25.7	25.7
Lanarkshire	29.0	29.0
Lothian	23.4	18.8
Orkney	14.5	14.5
Shetland	13.3	13.3
Tayside	30.7	30.7
Western Isles	17.2	17.2

 

Smoking at Booking by Mother?s Age: Scotland 2000 (Figure 4a)

Age group	Published	Revised
under 20	45.4	44.5
20-24	39.6	38.8
25-29	26.6	25.8
30-34	19.7	19.0
35-39	19.7	19.0
40-44	18.3	17.9
45 and over	12.5	12.5

Source: SMR02