Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Relation between cotinine in the urine and indices based on self-declared smoking habits

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine Aims and scope

Abstract

Objectives

The reliability of surveys on smoking habits based on questionnaires was investigated, using the urinary cotinine content as an objective index.

Methods

The subjects tested were 2,849 office workers of middle age, who responded to questions concerning their smoking status, and also their urinary cotinine was measured by the HPLC method.

Results

The boundary value between smokers and non-smokers, determined by the histogram independent of the questionnaire, was 63.1 and 79.4 ng/mg of creatinine for males and females, respectively. The rate of misclassification of the non-smokers and former smokers as smokers was 1.3% for males and 1.8% for females, whereas that of current smokers as non-smokers was 6.3% and 2.1%. We also assessed the effect of smoke inhalation on the urinary cotinine value, and found a significant difference for males in the cotinine value by the presence of inhalation and also its depth.

Conclusions

The rate of misclassification in this study was considered to be comparatively low. Several studies have also assessed the reliability of the questionnaire on smoking habits, and found different misclassification rates, indicating the dependence on the race and number of subjects tested. To our knowledge, there were only a few surveys on smoking among large groups, particularly in Japan, such as this one, therefore the results obtained in this study are meaningful.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. The Ministry of Health and Welfare. Smoking and health: Report on the smoking and health problems. 2nd Ed. Tokyo: Japan health promotion & fitness foundation, 1993: 47–108. (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Jaakkola MS, Jaakkola JJ. Assessment of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Eur. Respir. J. 1997; 10: 2384–2397.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jarvis MJ, Tunstall-Pedoe H, Feyerabend C, Vesey C, Saloojee Y. Comparison of tests used to distinguish smokers from nonsmokers. Am. J. Public Health 1987; 77: 1435–1438.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Muranaka H, Higashi E, Itani S, Shimizu Y. Evaluation of nicotine, cotinine, thiocyanate, carboxyhemoglobin, and expired carbon monoxide as biochemical tobacco smoke uptake parameters. Int. Arch. Occup. Environ. Health 1988; 60: 37–41.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hall SM, Herning RI, Jones RT, Benowitz NL, Jacob P 3d. Blood cotinine levels as indicators of smoking treatment outcome. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 1984; 35: 810–814.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Matsukura S, Taminato T, Kitano N, Seino Y, Hamada H, Uchihashi M, Nakajima H, Hirata Y. Effects of environmental tobacco smoke on urinary cotinine excretion in nonsmokers. Evidence for passive smoking. N. Engl. J. Med. 1984; 311: 828–832.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Takeda N, Jitsunari F, Asakawa F, Suna S, Manabe Y, Goda K. A study on urine cotinine for the evaluation of smoking cessation. Nippon Koshu Eisei Zasshi 1995; 50: 637–651. (in Japanese).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Takeda N, Jitsunari F, Asakawa F, Suna S, Manabe Y, Shiraishi H, Fukunaga I. Analysis of nicotine metabolite among passive smokers. Journal of Shikoku Public Health Society 1993; 38: 31–34. (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Michael H. Simple high-performance liquid chromatographic method for rapid determination of nicotine and cotinine in urine. J. Chromatogr. 1985; 344: 391–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Haufroid V, Lison D. Urinary cotinine as a tobacco-smoke exposure index: a minireview. Int. Arch. Occup. Environ. Health 1998; 71: 162–168.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Terao A, Konishi M, Baba S, Mannami T. Exposure to tobacco smoke in a Japanese urban population. An analysis using biochemical markers of smoking. Nippon Koshu Eisei Zasshi 1998; 45: 3–13. (in Japanese).

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Takeda N. Cotinine. Nippon Rinsho 1999; 57: 471–477. (in Japanese).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Feyerabend C, Higenbottam T, Russell MA. Nicotine concentrations in urine and saliva of smokers and non-smokers. Br. Med. J. (Clin. Res. Ed.) 1982; 284: 1002–1004.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Wald NJ, Nanchahal K, Thompson SG, Cuckle HS. Does breathing other people's tobacco smoke cause lung cancer? Br. Med. J. (Clin. Res. Ed.) 1986; 293: 1217–1222.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Cummings KM, Markello SJ, Mahoney M, Bhargava AK, McElroy PD, Marshall JR. Measurement of current exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Arch. Environ. Health 1990; 45: 74–79.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Perez-Stable EJ, Marin G, Marin BV, Benowitz NL. Misclassification of smoking status by self-reported cigarette consumption. Am. Rev. Respir. Dis. 1992; 145: 53–57.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Pojer R, Whitfield JB, Poulos V, Eckhard IF, Richmond R, Hensley WJ. Carboxyhemoglobin, cotinine, and thiocyanate assay compared for distinguishing smokers from non-smokers. Clin. Chem. 1984; 30: 1377–1380.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Jarvis M, Tunstall-Pedoe H, Feyerabend C, Vesey C, Salloojee Y. Biochemical markers of smoke absorption and self reported exposure to passive smoking. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 1984; 38: 335–339.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Haddow JE, Knight GJ, Palomaki GE, McCarthy JE. Secondtrimester serum cotinine levels in nonsmokers in relation to birth weight. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 1988; 159: 481–484.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Wagenknecht LE, Burke GL, Perkins LL, Haley NJ, Friedman GD. Misclassification of smoking status in the CARDIA study: a comparison of self-report with serum cotinine levels. Am. J. Public Health 1992; 82: 33–36.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Lee PN. Lung cancer and passive smoking: association of an artifact due to misclassification of smoking habits? Toxicol. Lett. 1987; 35: 157–162.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Pierce JP, Dwyer T, DiGiusto E, Carpenter T, Hannam C, Amin A, Yong C, Sarfaty G, Shaw J, Burke N. Cotinine validation of self-reported smoking in commercially run community surveys. J. Chronic. Dis. 1987; 40: 689–695.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Coultas DB, Howard CA, Peake GT, Skipper BJ, Samet JM. Discrepancies between self-reported and validated cigarette smoking in a community survey of New Mexico Hispanics. Am. Rev. Respir. Dis. 1988; 137: 810–814.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Kitagawa K, Kunugita N, Katoh T, Yang M, Kawamoto T. The significance of the homozygous CYP2A6 deletion on nicotine metabolism: a new genotyping method of CYP2A6 using a single PCR-RFLP. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1999; 262: 146–151.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Davis RA, Stiles MF, deBethizy JD, Reynolds JH. Dietary nicotine: a source of urinary cotinine. Food Chem. Toxicol. 1991; 29: 821–827.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Domino EF. Nontobacco sources of cotinine in the urine of non-smokers. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 1995; 57: 479.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Nakayama T, Yokoyama T, Yoshiike N, Ichimura T, Yamamoto A, Tanaka H. Behavioral factors predicting serum cotinine concentrations of male smokers in a Japanese community. J. Epidemiol. 1999; 9: 143–145.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hygiene and Public Health, School of Medicine, Tokyo Women's Medical University, 8-1 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, 162-8666, Tokyo, Japan

    Akiko Tsutsumi, Jun Kagawa, Yuko Yamano & Satoru Shimizu

  2. Department of Hygiene, School of Medicine, Showa University, Tokyo

    Toshio Nakadate

Authors
  1. Akiko Tsutsumi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jun Kagawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yuko Yamano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Toshio Nakadate
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Satoru Shimizu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akiko Tsutsumi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tsutsumi, A., Kagawa, J., Yamano, Y. et al. Relation between cotinine in the urine and indices based on self-declared smoking habits. Environ Health Prev Med 6, 240–247 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02897976

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02897976

Key words

Search

Navigation