7. SMOKING IN PREGNANCY – GAP INDICATOR

TABLE 1 – INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Information component	Page 4 Health Summary – Indicator No 7
Subject category / domain(s)	Giving children and young people a healthy start
Indicator name (* Indicator title in health profile)	Smoking in pregnancy
PHO with lead responsibility	ERPHO
Date of PHO dataset creation	N/A
Indicator definition	Women continuing to smoke throughout pregnancy, proportion, all ages, [time period], females
Geography	County/ LA not available
Timeliness	Annual
Rationale:What this indicator purports to measure	Continued smoking throughout pregnancy
Rationale:Public Health Importance	Smoking in pregnancy is bad for mothers as well as their children. It can lead to small and premature babies, ongoing health problems, and also there is an opportunity to benefit maternal health in quitting smoking at the time of pregnancy. Differences in continued smoking between socioeconomic groups perpetuate health inequalities. There are effective interventions to increase the smoking cessation rate throughout pregnancy.
Rationale:Purpose behind the inclusion of the indicator	This indicator is collected a part of the performance framework for PCOs and is considered to be indicative of good child health, and a marker for inequality as continued smoking rates tend to be higher in disadvantaged groups. A well performing health service for mothers and children would provide strong support for smoking cessation.
Rationale:Reason for Gap	It was not included in HP 2007 for 2 reasons: 1. Ongoing doubts about the quality of the data 2. Inability to attribute the data from produce local authority estimates from PCO estimatesFurther work is needed on this indicator to test its fitness for purpose for HP3 and to devise a strategy for improving its quality.
Rationale:Policy relevance	Children’s NSFPriorities and planning framework 2003-6Smoking Kills
Interpretation: What a high / low level of indicator value means	N/A
Interpretation: Potential for error due to type of measurement method	N/A
Interpretation: Potential for error due to bias and confounding	N/A
Confidence Intervals: Definition and purpose	N/A

TABLE 2 – INDICATOR SPECIFICATION

Indicator definition: Variable	Women continuing to smoke throughout pregnancy (i.e. smoking at delivery)
Indicator definition: Statistic	Proportion of maternities
Indicator definition: Gender	Female
Indicator definition: age group	All ages
Indicator definition: period	[time period]
Indicator definition: scale
Geography: geographies available for this indicator from other providers	England, GOR, SHA, PCO
Dimensions of inequality: subgroup analyses of this dataset available from other providers	N/A
Data extraction: Source	Local Delivery Plans returns (LDPR)
Data extraction: source URL	UNIFY2 (DH reporting system)
Data extraction: date	N/A
Numerator: definition	Number of women smoking at the time of delivery
Numerator: source	LDPR
Denominator: definition	Number of maternities
Denominator: source	LDPR
Data quality: Accuracy and completeness	N/A

Posted in: Indicators