Original article
Use of urinary cotinine and questionnaires in the evaluation of infant exposure to tobacco smoke in epidemiologic studies☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-4356(97)00095-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke is an important variable in many pediatric epidemiologic studies. We measured urinary cotinine, a specific metabolite of nicotine, in a population-based cohort of children every other month from birth through two years of age. Extensive data regarding exposure to smokers (people in the home, in home and away from home day care, home visitors, visits to smokers) were collected monthly by way of home interviews. We evaluated, with multiple cotinine measurements as the gold standard, other measures of exposure that are more feasible to obtain in large-scale studies. Comparing one cotinine to the average of multiple measurements, we found that 33.7% were in error in excess of 100 ng/mg, but 84% of the infants could be correctly classified into categories of low versus high. Parental smoking patterns had the highest predictive accuracy (fathers 67.0% and mothers 64.1%). Combining selected smoker categories (either parent, other home residents, outside day care workers) resulted in improved accuracy of 79.3%.

References (21)

  • DR Ownby et al.

    Maternal smoking does not influence cord serum IgE or IgD concentrations

    J Allergy Clin Immunol

    (1991)
  • JA Emerson et al.

    The accuracy of environmental tobacco smoke exposure measures among asthmatic children

    J Clin Epidemiol

    (1995)
  • JE Fielding

    Smoking: Health effects and control (first of two parts)

    N Engl J Med

    (1985)
  • JE Fielding

    Smoking: Health effects and control (second of two parts)

    N Engl J Med

    (1985)
  • KM McConnochie et al.

    Parental smoking, presence of older siblings and family history of asthma increase risk of bronchiolitis

    AJDC

    (1986)
  • IB Tager et al.

    Effect of cigarette smoking on the pulmonary function of children and adolescents

    Am Rev Respir Dis

    (1985)
  • RA Etzel et al.

    Passive smoking and middle ear effusion among children in day care

    Pediatr

    (1992)
  • ST Weiss et al.

    Persistent wheeze. Its relation to respiratory illness, cigarette smoking, and level of pulmonary function in a population sample of children

    Am Rev Respir Dis

    (1980)
  • JRT Colley et al.

    Respiratory disease in young adults: Influence of early childhood lower respiratory tract illness, social class, air pollution, and smoking

    Br Med J

    (1973)
  • GT O'Connor et al.

    The effect of passive smoking on pulmonary function and nonspecific bronchial responsiveness in a population-based sample of children and young adults

    Am Rev Respir Dis

    (1987)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

☆

Supported by grant Al 24156 from the National Institutes of Health and by the Fund for Henry Ford Hospital.

View full text
Copyright © 1997 Published by Elsevier Inc.