About The Study

E-cigarettes are a popular smoking cessation method in Ireland and their popularity has rapidly increased over the past ten years. The Irish National Drug Library reports that 14.9% of the population aged 15 years and older had used e-cigarettes at least once in their lifetime and 4.3% (166,902) of the population had used e-cigarettes in the last month.

While e-cigarettes have been posed as a healthier alternative to cigarettes, the reality of their long-term health effects is not well understood. Due to the rapidly increasing presence and use of vapes and e-cigarettes in young people, research into these developmental outcomes in children has become necessary.

The ECHO study aims to investigate the long-term health outcomes in children born to mothers who use e-cigarettes during pregnancy.

This study aims to assess any differences in obstetric and neonatal outcomes in the short term and to assess respiratory, nutritional, and neurocognitive outcomes in babies born to vapers and smokers versus non-smokers at 2 years of age. Our study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, and can be accessed here.

The ECHO study will recruit women who use e-cigarettes during pregnancy across the three Dublin maternity hospitals, The Coombe Hospital, The Rotunda Hospital, and The National Maternity Hospital. We will also recruit a similar number of both non-smoking and tobacco-smoking pregnant women for comparison analysis.

We want to invite all pregnant women attending one of the Dublin maternity hospitals for their antenatal care who are interested in taking part to get in contact with the research team.

Contact our Researchers