Perception of smoking-related health consequences among pregnant and non-pregnant women.

The objective was to examine the perception of smoking-related health consequences and its relationship to pregnancy and intent to quit. Over a two-week period, pregnant and non-pregnant women, intending and not intending to quit smoking, rated the probability for smoking-related health consequences to occur, given continuing to smoke and quitting smoking. Pregnant women who did not intend to quit smoking exhibited the lowest estimated probability for the smoking-related health consequences to occur if they continued smoking. For all women, there was a statistically significant estimated effect of quitting smoking. Renewed attention needs to be given to perceptions of health risks of smoking, especially among pregnant women.