THE ACCURACY OF ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO-SMOKE EXPOSURE MEASURES AMONG ASTHMATIC-CHILDREN

This study determined the reliability and validity of parent-reported measures of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure among 91 asthma tic children. Test-retest reliability assessments were conducted for e nvironmental, biological and parent-reported measures of ETS exposure. All measures except a urine cotinine assay resulted in satisfactory l evels of reliability. The parent-reported measures of ETS exposure wer e compared to the environmental filter measure of nicotine as well as submitted to a construct validity test. Parent-reported home exposure to ETS proved moderately and significantly correlated to the filter me asure. Approximately 80% of all hypothetical constructs agreed with th e observed relationships for convergent, divergent and discrimant vali dity. It was concluded that middle class Caucasian parents' reports of their asthmatic child's residential ETS exposure are reliable and val id. These parent-reported measures should be valuable tools for epidem iological investigations and for clinical programs designed to reduce asthmatic children's residential exposure to ETS.