Falling Through the Cracks of Early Intervention and Prevention: Missed Smoking Cessation Referrals for Mothers in Early Head Start

Authors

  • Elyse Shenberger
  • Katherine Zinsser

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55370/hsdialog.v25i2.1430

Keywords:

smoking cessation, pregnancy, Early Head Start, referrals

Abstract

Introduction. Smoking rates have decreased overall but smoking during pregnancy remains a challenge with impacts to mother, child, and family. Referrals are a critical component in accessing cessation, yet research identifies several barriers to access. Early Head Start (EHS) is one avenue for referrals, and we wanted to understand which characteristics describe those who have received prenatal smoking cessation referrals from EHS. Methods. This project utilized secondary data from the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (N = 144). We conducted three hierarchical logistic regressions based on the following characteristics pulled from the literature—demographics (e.g., race, ethnicity, age, education, marital status, and partner at home), smoking behavior, and accessibility (e.g., language, location, siblings in EHS, length of time (LOT) in EHS, and program type)— removing non-significant variables at each stage of the hierarchy. Results. Results indicated no significant differences in referral rates across demographics (ps > .32). Results also showed smoking during pregnancy predictive of referral receipt (OR = 10.35, p < .05). Lastly, results showed longer LOTs with EHS (OR = 4.41, p < .01) and siblings in EHS (OR = 10.98, p < .05) significantly associated with referral receipt. Discussion. We found equity among referrals, consistent with EHS’s anti-racist foundation. We found mothers only reporting smoking history were missed. Finally, we found when EHS knows about a pregnancy, either from early referral to EHS or from other children receiving services, the referral mechanism is most successful. Future work should include an emphasis on recruiting earlier in gestation.

Downloads

Published

2022-09-01

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2022): Support for the Adults and Young Children in Early Childhood Environments

Section

Research Articles

License

This Agreement (the Agreement) is made by and between the authors and the HS Dialog Editorial Team.

Author Agreement

By submitting the research article to HS Dialog, I acknowledge it may be published by the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Author(s) certify that:

  1. Warranties:
    1. Authors are legally authorized and possesses full power and authority on behalf of co-authors to enter into this Agreement.
    2. Author warrants, on behalf of all article authors, that:
    3. The article is original, has not been formally published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration for publication by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights;
    4. The named authors are the sole author(s) of the article. Any co-author not signing this Agreement personally has granted full authority to the main author and agree to enter into this agreement of his/her behalf and to gran the following rights to HS Dialog.
    5. The article contains nothing that is unlawful, libellous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract.

II.Copyright

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Author(s) shall retain copyright to the article but grant the Journal right of first publication, and the irrevocable right to perpetually disseminate the article as part of the Journal subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License, that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Beginning one year after the date of formal publication of the article, Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work and subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), subject to a proper acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal: This article was originally published in HS Dialog (Vol., Issue, Year).

III. Indemnification.

Author shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Journal from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, expenses (including attorney’s fees and expert costs, penalties, fees, if any arising from enforcement of this Agreement and/or related to claims of infringement of copyrights or proprietary rights allegedly contained in the Article, or resulting from a claim of defamation, obscenity, or invasion of privacy based upon or arising out of the publication of the Article or any other breach of warranty as set forth in No. 1.