TY - JOUR
T1 - Determinants of children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)
T2 - A study in Southern Germany
AU - Scherer, Gerhard
AU - Krämer, Ursula
AU - Meger-Kossien, Irmtrud
AU - Riedel, Kirsten
AU - Heller, Wolf Dieter
AU - Link, Elke
AU - Gostomzyk, Johannes Georg
AU - Ring, Johannes
AU - Behrendt, Heidrun
PY - 2004/7
Y1 - 2004/7
N2 - Matern. smoking has been repeatedly found to be the most important determinant of children's exposure to Environ. tobacco smoke (ETS). Here, we further investigated predictors for the urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR, ng/mg) in 1220 preschool children for the Yr. 1996. Children from smoking homes (35.1%) had significantly higher CCR than children from nonsmoking homes (mean: 55.5 vs. 14.9 ng/mg). The level of Educ. of the parents was a strong predictor for CCRs even after adjusting for No. of cigarettes smoked, Matern. smoking and dwelling space. Additionally, dwelling space was inversely related to children's urinary cotinine level. The CCR- levels in children investigated in 1996 and 1998 were significantly correlated (Pearson's r = 0.67). The parents of 806 children agreed for a visit to their homes. In 79 of the 536 (14.7%) of the self-reported, nonsmoking households, smoking was admitted during the visit. The mean urinary CCR of these children was 25.2 ng/mg. We conclude that in addition to parental smoking behaviour, other variables such as dwelling space and social and Educ. status predict the children's exposure to ETS. Our data also revealed that a considerable percentage of parents denied the ETS exposure of their children at home.
AB - Matern. smoking has been repeatedly found to be the most important determinant of children's exposure to Environ. tobacco smoke (ETS). Here, we further investigated predictors for the urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR, ng/mg) in 1220 preschool children for the Yr. 1996. Children from smoking homes (35.1%) had significantly higher CCR than children from nonsmoking homes (mean: 55.5 vs. 14.9 ng/mg). The level of Educ. of the parents was a strong predictor for CCRs even after adjusting for No. of cigarettes smoked, Matern. smoking and dwelling space. Additionally, dwelling space was inversely related to children's urinary cotinine level. The CCR- levels in children investigated in 1996 and 1998 were significantly correlated (Pearson's r = 0.67). The parents of 806 children agreed for a visit to their homes. In 79 of the 536 (14.7%) of the self-reported, nonsmoking households, smoking was admitted during the visit. The mean urinary CCR of these children was 25.2 ng/mg. We conclude that in addition to parental smoking behaviour, other variables such as dwelling space and social and Educ. status predict the children's exposure to ETS. Our data also revealed that a considerable percentage of parents denied the ETS exposure of their children at home.
KW - Children
KW - Cotinine
KW - Environmental tobacco smoke
KW - Parental smoking
KW - Reliability of questionnaires
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=4344608086&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/sj.jea.7500323
DO - 10.1038/sj.jea.7500323
M3 - Article
C2 - 15254475
AN - SCOPUS:4344608086
SN - 1053-4245
VL - 14
SP - 284
EP - 292
JO - Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology
JF - Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology
IS - 4
ER -