QUESTIONNAIRE DATA AS PREDICTORS OF URINARY COTININE LEVELS AMONG NONSMOKING ADOLESCENTS

The strength of association between urinary cotinine and questionnaire data on passive smoking among 542 adolescents was evaluated. There we re 103 individuals with urinary cotinine higher than 30 ng/ml; they we re compared with all other subjects. The single variable that best pre dicted the urinary cotinine level was maternal smoking. A strong effec t was made by house size and, consequently, house crowding. Maternal s moking and house crowding had a synergic effect. The subject's percept ion of passive smoking at home also was an independent indication of a high cotinine level. The final model had a fairly good sensitivity, w hereas the specificity was somewhat lower. The results suggest that ma ternal smoking, house crowding, and subject's perception of a smoky en vironment could be surrogate indices of high passive smoking exposure in this age group and could be useful for epidemiologic studies.