Determinants of environmental tobacco smoke in a population of Puerto Rican children

Abstract

This study was designed to determine among various personal, socioeconomic, and environmental factors those which had the greatest influence on exposure to environmental tohacco smoke (ETS) in a population of children residing in a tropical environment and to compare these results with those obtained in the literature of tobacco exposed children in temperate climates. Urine specimens were collected from 606 healthy Puerto Rican children (2-12 years) living in an industrial area and analyzed for cotinine, a quantitative hiomarker for exposure to ETS. Parents completed a questionnaire covering smoking hahits and socioeconomic information. Seventy per cent of the children were reported to be exposed to ETS, 50% resulting from exposure to smoke from either or both parents. Major determinants to ETS exposure were found to be presence of smoker, numher of smokers, identity of smoker, numher of cigarettes smoked in the household and child age with the youngest children suffering twice the exposure of older children. Non-determinants were exposure to smoke other than from the parent, sex of the child, season of the year and several socioeconomic factors including civil and employment status ofthe mother, mother's age and educational background and whether food stamps were being received. Results of a muitiple regression analysis showed that our predictors accounted for 40% of cotinine appearing in the urine. Reasons for this relatively low value may be due in part to precision of our analytic method und lower levels of ambient smoke in our population vs. others that reported higher R^ values. Predictions from questionnaire information for high ETS exposure were not always the same as those indicated by urinar>' cotinine emphasizing that the bioindicator, which indicates the actual inhalation of ETS, is a better predictor of exposure than responses from a questionnaire.

Factors Associated with Exposure to Passive Smoking among 12-18 year-old Students in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece

“…Gender based stratification revealed slightly higher rates of exposure among males compared with females, which is consistent with the findings of surveys conducted in other countries 11,12 . However, in a former GYTS-based study conducted in Greece by Rachiotis et al 8 , the authors reported that males were less likely to be exposed at home than females.…”

“…Finally, we didn't use biomarkers such as urine cotinine in order to evaluate exposure to passive smoking. Such methodology has been shown to be more accurate, since the levels of these biomarkers are strongly correlated with the amount of inhaled tobacco-smoke 11 . conclusIons Current prevalence of exposure to passive smoking among high school students in Greece is extremely high.…”

Determinants of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) among Non Smoking Adolescents (Aged 11-17 Years Old) in Greece: Results from the 2004-2005 GYTS Study

“…Preston et al . in a study among Puerto Rican children found no significant difference between males and females in terms of exposure to ETS [11]. However the previously mentioned finding, if confirmed by future studies, has to be addressed by future research in order to clarify why this difference between sexes in exposure to ETS does exist.…”

“…In addition, we did not use biomarkers of exposure to ETS in order to assess the exposure status of the participants. It has been reported that the assessment of exposure status to passive smoking by the use of both questionnaires and biomarkers led to results that differed significantly [11]. The questionnaires are very useful in order to provide information on the population potentially susceptible to exposure to secondhand smoke, while the biomarker reflects the amount of tobacco smoke inhaled, and thus is a more reliable index of exposure.…”

Prevalence and correlates of environmental tobacco smoke exposure among adolescents in Mangolia

“…13 For instance young children are likely to be exposed to ETS at home and maternal smoking is an important risk factor. Older children may be exposed to ETS at home as well as smoking occurring at school, including among teachers, and elsewhere.…”