title: Questionnaire data as predictors of urinary cotinine levels among nonsmoking adolescents.
abstract: The strength of association between urinary cotinine and questionnaire data on passive smoking among 542 adolescents was evaluated. There were 103 individuals with urinary cotinine higher than 30 ng/ml; they were compared with all other subjects. The single variable that best predicted the urinary cotinine level was maternal smoking. A strong effect was made by house size and, consequently, house crowding. Maternal smoking and house crowding had a synergic effect. The subject's perception of passive smoking at home also was an independent indication of a high cotinine level. The final model had a fairly good sensitivity, whereas the specificity was somewhat lower. The results suggest that maternal smoking, house crowding, and subject's perception of a smoky environment could be surrogate indices of high passive smoking exposure in this age group and could be useful for epidemiologic studies.
authors.affiliation: Osservatorio Epidemiologico Regionale-Lazio, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Forastiere
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Agabiti
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dell'Orco
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pistelli
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Corbo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brancato
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pacifici
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zuccaro
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Perucci
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003367:Cotinine / Q000652:urine*; D003441:Crowding; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010290:Parents; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; D003367:Cotinine