Korean J Lab Med.  2004 Jun;24(3):155-159.

Usefulness of Urinary Cotinine Test to Discriminate between Smokers and Nonsmokers in Korean Adolescents

• Kang YH
• Lee YJ
• Kong SY
• Lee DH
• Yun YH

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Recently we have demonstrated that urinary cotinine test by an enzyme immunoassay is valid to discriminate smoking status among adults. This study was conducted for the same purpose among Korean high school students. METHODS: Questionnaire on smoking and urinary cotinine tests were performed for 1, 267 high school students. Cotinine concentrations in urine were measured by Cotinine Enzyme Immunoassay (Diag-nostic Reagents Inc., CA, USA) on 502X Multiple Chemistry Unit (A&T Co., Tokyo, Japan). RESULTS: The questionnaire was responded by 1, 227 of the 1, 267 students (96.8%); 6 male (0.8%) and 34 female students (5.9%) did not respond. Among the responders, 13.4% (92/685) of male students and 3.0% (16/542) of female students answered as smokers. By using 6 ng/mL as a cutoff, the sensitivity and specificity of the urinary cotinine test were 79.6% (86/108) and 91.4% (1023/1119), respectively. According to the results of urinary cotinine, 96 additional students were presumed as smokers. Of 85 abstainers and 40 non-responders, 41 (32.8%) tested positive for urinary cotinine. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike in a previous study with adults, the urinary cotinine test is shown not to be able to replace the self-reported questionnaire due to the lack of sensitivity for young adolescents. But the urinary continine test is valid to discriminate smokers among purported nonsmokers, espe-cially among non-responders and those who claimed abstinence.

Keyword

Smoking; Adolescent; Self-reported questionnaire; Urine; Cotinine; Enzyme immu-noassay

MeSH Terms

Adolescent*
Adult
Chemistry
Cotinine*
Female
Humans
Immunoenzyme Techniques
Indicators and Reagents
Male
Sensitivity and Specificity
Smoke
Smoking
Surveys and Questionnaires
Cotinine
Indicators and Reagents
Smoke