Binghamton Research Magazine - Spring/Summer 2012 - (Page 21)

Most pregnant smokers know that cigarettes can harm their babies. But stern lectures from authority figures won’t help them quit.
That message came through loud and clear when Binghamton researchers went into the field to learn how to deliver information about tobacco use to pregnant women. Based on insights from front-line experts — pregnant smokers and their healthcare providers — the investigators created a video that they hope will succeed where other interventions have failed. Twenty-six percent of women in upstate New York who gave birth in 2009 smoked during the three months before they conceived, and 12.24 percent still smoked in the last three months of their pregnancies, according to the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some rural areas the problem is worse, says Geraldine Britton, assistant professor at the Decker School of Nursing and director of Binghamton’s Interdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Program (ITURP). In western Steuben County, for example, 52 percent of women enrolled in Medicaid, Obstetrics and Maternal Services (MOMS) in 2009 said they smoked during the three months before they became pregnant. Even that figure may not be telling the whole story. “Rates of smoking during pregnancy are profoundly under-reported,” Britton says. Britton’s interest in smoking during pregnancy dates back to the 1980s, when she worked as a clinical nurse specialist and educator in maternal child care, and to the 1990s, when she coordinated the Southern Tier Tobacco Awareness Coalition. Later, for her doctoral dissertation at the Decker School, she tested the effectiveness of a nurse-managed program called Smoke Free Baby and Me that was integrated into routine prenatal care. She and a coalition of providers followed 194 pregnant smokers through pregnancy and postpartum. Compared to a control group, the study found significant differences in smoking cessation at the postpartum visit in the group of women enrolled in the program who had quit just before their first prenatal visit — helping them not relapse. But it found no differences among those who were still smoking at the first prenatal visit. In addition, the study revealed that many expectant mothers were hiding their smoking from healthcare providers. The women’s self-reports were validated by testing for a metabolite of nicotine called cotinine, which is found in smokers’ urine. “We found that 30 to 40 percent of the women who told us that they weren’t smoking had positive cotinines,” Britton says.

Binghamton launches Healthcare Initiative
The State University of New York identified healthcare as a major focus of its strategic plan, The Power of SUNY. Binghamton University has responded with the development of a campuswide Healthcare Initiative, combining expertise in life sciences with research teams from chemistry, physics, computer science, mechanical engineering, systems and industrial engineering and other areas. The initiative will advance research and scholarly activity in health and related sciences and engineering, bring multidisciplinary faculty teams together, seek areas that have a broad impact on society, enhance related educational programming and establish Binghamton University, the region and New York state as a center for research on healthcare innovations. Faculty teams are forming around several topics: neural systems/addiction research, cancer and other diseases, healthcare systems engineering, technology/ device development, biofilms and health behaviors.

Binghamton University • BINGHAMTON RESEARCH • Spring/Summer 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Binghamton Research Magazine - Spring/Summer 2012

Binghamton Research Magazine - Spring/Summer 2012
Contents
About Binghamton Research
Welcome
Briefs
Digital defenders
Jockeying for genetic advantage
The unfiltered truth
Spring awakening
Wall Street watchdog
Principles of the universe demand principled engineers
Engineering and Science Building
Graduate research
Undergraduate research
A piece of the puzzle
Crossword puzzle

Binghamton Research Magazine - Spring/Summer 2012