Urinary Cotinine Concentration and Self-Reported Smoking Status in 1075 Subjects Living in Central Italy

Enrico Paci, Daniela Pigini, Lisa Bauleo, Carla Ancona, Francesco Forastiere and Giovanna Tranfo
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Enrico Paci: INAIL, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Via di Fontana Candida 1, Monteporzio Catone, 00078 Rome, Italy
Daniela Pigini: INAIL, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Via di Fontana Candida 1, Monteporzio Catone, 00078 Rome, Italy
Lisa Bauleo: Lazio Regional Health Service, Department of Epidemiology, Via Cristoforo Colombo 112, 00147 Rome, Italy
Carla Ancona: Lazio Regional Health Service, Department of Epidemiology, Via Cristoforo Colombo 112, 00147 Rome, Italy
Francesco Forastiere: Lazio Regional Health Service, Department of Epidemiology, Via Cristoforo Colombo 112, 00147 Rome, Italy
Giovanna Tranfo: INAIL, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Via di Fontana Candida 1, Monteporzio Catone, 00078 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-8

Abstract: Background: Urinary cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, is a marker of tobacco smoke exposure. A cutoff value for cotinine concentration can be set to distinguish smokers from non-smokers, independently from self-declared status. Method: Cotinine was determined by isotopic dilution High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) between 2013 and 2014 on urine samples of a population of 1075 subjects. Results : 296 subjects have a cotinine level higher than 100 μg/g of creatinine (cutoff), with a median cotinine concentration of 1504.70 μg/g of creatinine. The mean is 27.5% of smokers and 60.5% in this group are females. The median value for non-smokers is 5.6 μg/g of creatinine. Two hundred and seventy-five subjects declared to be smokers in the questionnaire, but 6 (2.2%) present urinary cotinine levels lower than cutoff; 800 subjects declared to be non-smokers, but 26 of them presented urinary cotinine levels that were higher than the cutoff (3.3%). Conclusion: Using the cutoff of 100 μg/g, the misclassification of smokers resulted to be 2.2%, indicating that the selected value is suitable for studying the human exposures to environmental and occupational pollutants, including those produced by smoking.

Keywords: biomarkers; urinary cotinine; environmental tobacco smoke; smoking; cutoff; HPLC-MS/MS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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