Urine Cotinine for Assessing Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Korean: Analysis of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES)

Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases

article

Sungmo Jung¹  In Seon Lee¹  Sae Byol Kim¹  Chan Soo Moon¹  Ji Ye Jung¹  Young Ae Kang¹  Moo Suk Park¹  Young Sam Kim¹  Se Kyu Kim¹  Joon Chang¹  Eun Young Kim¹ 

[1] Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine

关键词: Urine;    Cotinine;    Smoking;    Tabacco Smoke Pollution;   

DOI  :  10.4046/trd.2012.73.4.210

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: The Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases

【 摘 要 】

Background The level of urine cotinine is an indicator of tobacco smoke exposure. The purpose of this study is to investigate urine cotinine for the purpose of assessing the smoking status of Korean smokers and non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke. Methods The subjects were identified from the 2007-2009 and the 2010 data sets of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). They were assigned as non-smokers, current smokers and ex-smokers. Non-smokers were also divided into three subset groups according to the duration of smoke exposure. Each group was stratified by gender prior to analysis. Results The median value of urine cotinine in the male current smokers was 1,221.93 ng/mL which was the highest among all groups. The difference between levels of urine cotinine for male and the female groups was statistically significant (p<0.01). In the female group, passive smoke exposure groups reported higher urine cotinine levels than non-exposure groups (p=0.01). The cutoff point for the discrimination of current smokers from non-smokers was 95.6 ng/mL in males and 96.8 ng/mL in females. The sensitivity and specificity were 95.2% and 97.1%, respectively, in males, 96.1% and 96.5% in females. However, the determination of urine cotinine level was not useful in distinguishing between passive smoke exposure groups and non-exposure groups. Conclusion Urine cotinine concentration is a useful biomarker for discriminating non-smokers from current smokers. However, careful interpretation is necessary for assessing passive smoke exposure by urine cotinine concentration.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC