JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoking, is the most salient cause for cancer, responsible for over 22% of global cancer deaths. The adverse impacts of second-hand smoking are more pronounced for expectant mothers, which can deteriorate both the mothers and the infants health and wellbeing. Research suggests that second-hand smoking significantly increasing expectant mothers’ susceptibility to miscarriage, cancer, and other chronic disease conditions, as well as expose their unborn babies to an increased likelihood of having life-long poor health. In China, a woman’s family members, such as husbands, parents, or in-laws, are more likely to be the individuals smoking around expectant mothers. Due to traditional Chinese cultural practices, even though some expectant mothers understand the harm of second-hand smoking, they may be reluctant to report their family members’ smoking behaviors. Resulting in severe underreporting, this compromises health experts’ ability to understand the severity of the issue. This paper proposes a novel approach to measure second-hand smoking surrounding pregnant women in the Chinese context. The proposed system could act as a stepping stone that inspires creative methods to help researchers further, and more accurately, measure second-hand smoking rates surrounding expectant mothers in China. This, in turn, could help health experts better establish cancer control measures around expectant mothers and prevent them from falling victims to cancer.