• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.15-22
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• 2002

The purpose of the study was to assess relationship between smoking-related questionnaire and urinary cotinine. Seventy-five students of each one class of the first and second grade in one vocational school were administered the smoking-related items of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey October 2000, after which urine samples were collected. Urinary cotinine was detected by qualitative AccuSign Nicotine immunoassay. Positivity of urinary cotinine was detected in 29 of 75 students (38.7%). Kappa coefficients between self-reported smoking behaviors and positivity of urinary cotinine were all statistically significant, showing 0.41, 0.50, 0.28, 0.71 in lifetime smokers, regular smokers, current smokers, and current frequent smokers, respectively. These results showed that self-reported questionnaire may be useful in smoking-related survey and qualitative urinary cotinine may be used as validation of self-reported questionnaire.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.223-230
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• 2009

Objectives : This study was conducted to validate self-reported smoking among high school students using urinary cotinine. Methods : A self report of smoking behavior was collected together with urine sample for cotinine analysis from 130 male and female students in two vocational high school students in November, 2007. Validity and agreement between self-reported smoking and urinary cotinine was analyzed with STATA 9.0 for different definitions of current smokers, and frequent and daily smokers. Urinary cotinine concentration was measured by the DRI Cotinine Assay for urine (Microgenics Corp., Fremont, CA) on Toshiba 200FR. The cut-off point of urinary cotinine was 50 ng/dl. Results : The concentrations of urinary cotinine were significantly different according to the frequency and amount of smoking. Sensitivity and specificity was 90.9% and 91.8% respectively, and the Cohen s kappa value was 0.787 among the current smokers who smoked at least one day during one month preceding the survey. The comparable high sensitivity, specificity, and kappa value were shown also among the other definitions of current smokers, that is, subjective smokers, and weekly smokers. Conclusions : The results showed the high validity of self-reported smoking among high school students. However, due to the small sample size and limitation of the participants, it is cautious to generalize the results to overall high school students.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2002

Tobacco smoke was confirmed as a human carcinogen by many research results. Because many adolescents stay long time in the PC game room, they are exposed to much of tobacco smoke. To evaluate the effect of passive smoking in the PC game room, airborne nicotine concentrations in 2 PC game rooms in Sung-nam city and urinary cotinine concentrations were measured for 20 adolescents. And the subjects were interviewed for duration and time in PC game room and smoking pattern. Subjects are composed of each of 10 smokers(5 males and 5 females) and 10 nonsmokers(5 males and 5 females). They stayed for three hours in the PC game room without smoking. Concentrations of nicotine in smokers and nonsmokers were 129.72 $\mu$g/$^3$ and 99.99 $\mu$g/m$^3$, respectively. Urinary cotinine concentrations were increased as time goes on after exposure to nicotine and showed maximum value at 9.45 hours after nicotine exposure and were 32.21 and 110.66 $\mu$g/L for nonsmoker and smokers. The more using time and frequency in PC game room, the higher urinary cotinine maximum concentration and the longer using duration, also the more increase urinary cotinine concentration. Urinary cotinine has a tendency to increase by passive smoking. Therefore, it is recommended that the effective control for indoor air quality and extensive research be needed to reduce nicotine concentration by passive smoking in the PC game room.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.136-142
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• 2015

Objective: Smoking has been reported to harm nearly every organ of the body, but conflicting results have been reported regarding the effects of smoking on assisted conception. In this prospective cohort study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of positive urinary cotinine tests in infertile couples and whether cotinine positivity was associated with infertility treatment outcomes. Methods: A qualitative urinary cotinine test was administered to 127 couples who underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF, n=92) or intrauterine insemination (IUI, n=35). Results: The overall prevalence of positive urinary cotinine test was 43.3% (55/127) in the male partners and 10.2% (13/127) in the female partners with similar prevalence rates in both genders in the IUI and IVF groups. Semen characteristics, serum markers of ovarian reserve, and number of retrieved oocytes were comparable among cotinine-positive and cotinine-negative men or women (with the exception of sperm count, which was higher among cotinine-positive men). The results of urinary cotinine tests in infertile couples were not associated with IVF and IUI outcomes. Conclusion: The presence of cotinine in the system, as indicated by a positive urinary cotinine test, was not associated with poorer outcomes of infertility treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.139-145
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• 2016

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a major public health problem for all ages. Despite the high prevalence of smoking among the Saudi population, there is limited information about levels of urinary cotinine in Saudi children exposed to SHS. The aim of the study was to assess the exposure of schoolchildren to ETS, and measure their urinary cotinine levels. Multistage cluster sampling was carried out, where schoolchildren from 4 schools were randomly chosen from primary schools in Taif city. A questionnaire including questions on SHS exposure and smoking rules in the residence were sent to students parents/guardians. Urine samples were taken and analyzed for total cotinine using chemiluminescent immunoassay. Of the studied children, 38.4% had a smoking father, 61.8%, 41.2% and 49.3% of them were exposed to ETS indoors, outdoors and both indoors and outdoors respectively. The mean urinary cotinine was significantly higher among children exposed to ETS compared to unexposed children. Urinary cotinine levels in children with both indoor and outdoor exposure was significantly higher compared with its level in children with single exposure. A significant positive correlation was found between urinary cotinine concentrations and the number of cigarette packs smoked by parents, and the number of smokers in the residence. The mean urinary cotinine level was significantly higher in children who reported no smoking rules at the residence.. The study revealed a high exposure of Saudi children to ETS. An antismoking media awareness campaign on the harmful effects of ETS should be carried out, in addition to family counseling programs targeted to parents to protect their children from ETS.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.320-329
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• 2021

Background: Smoking exposure may be objectively assessed through specific biomarkers. The most common biomarker for smoking is cotinine concentration in urine, and setting an optimal cut-off point can accurately classify smoking status. Such a cut-off point for Korean adolescents has never been studied. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine a cut-off point for urinary cotinine concentration for the discrimination of smoking in adolescents. Methods: Participants were adolescents aged 13~18 years who participated in the third cycle of the Korean National Environmental Health Survey. We used urine samples to confirm the level of cotinine concentrations. Smoking status was determined by self-reported questionnaire. We identified the optimal cotinine cut-off point for discriminating smoking status using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: Of the 904 participants, 28 (3.1%) were smokers, among whom 20 (71.4%) were male. The median urinary cotinine concentrations in smokers was 218 ㎍/L (male: 215 ㎍/L, female: 303 ㎍/L), and that in non-smokers was 1.31 ㎍/L (male: 1.46 ㎍/L, female: 1.18 ㎍/L). We found significant differences in urinary cotinine concentration according to smoking status and sex (p<0.001). Urinary cotinine concentrations performed well for identifying smoking adolescents [area under the curve: 0.954 (male: 0.963, female: 0.908)]. The cut-off that optimally distinguished smokers from non-smokers was 39.85 ㎍/L (sensitivity: 89.3%, specificity: 97.4%). Male [39.85 ㎍/L (sensitivity: 90.0%, specificity: 94.9%)] had a different optimal cut-off point than female [26.26 ㎍/L (sensitivity: 87.5%, specificity: 99.6%)]. Conclusions: This study determined a cut-off point for urinary cotinine of 39.85 ㎍/L (male: 39.85 ㎍/L, female: 26.26 ㎍/L) to distinguish smokers from non-smokers in adolescents.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5483-5488
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• 2012

Background: Although nicotine dependence plays a role as a main barrier for smoking cessation, there is still a lack of solid evidence on the validity of biomarkers to determine nicotine dependence in clinical settings. This study aimed to investigate whether urinary cotinine levels could reflect the severity of nicotine dependence in active smokers. Materials and Methods: Data regarding general characteristics and smoking status was collected using a self-administered smoking questionnaire. The Fagerstr$\ddot{o}$m test for nicotine dependence (FTND) was used to determine nicotine dependence of the participants, and a total of 381 participants were classified into 3 groups of nicotine dependence: low (n=205, 53.8%), moderate (n=127, 33.3%), and high dependence groups (n=49, 12.9%). Stepwise multiple linear regression model and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analyses were used to determine the validity of urinary cotinine for high nicotine dependence. Results: In correlation analysis, urinary cotinine levels increased with FTND score (r=0.567, P<0.001). ROC curves analysis showed that urinary cotinine levels predicted the high-dependence group with reasonable accuracy (optimal cut-off value=1,000 ng/mL; AUC=0.82; P<0.001; sensitivity=71.4%; specificity=74.4%). In stepwise multiple regression analysis, the total smoking period (${\beta}$=0.042, P=0.001) and urinary cotinine levels (${\beta}$=0.234, P<0.001) were positively associated with nicotine dependence, whereas an inverse association was observed between highest education levels (>16 years) and nicotine dependence (${\beta}$=-0.573, P=0.034). Conclusions: The results of this study support the validity of using urinary cotinine levels for assessment of nicotine dependence in active smokers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.207-213
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• 2001

Objectives: We surveyed the prevalence of smoking among the adolescent population and analysed the correlation of the two exposure biomarkers-concentration of blood cadmium and urinary cotinine-to the smoking status. Methods: Subjects were 193 middle and high school students in Chungnam province. Blood cadmium and urinary cotinine were compared by sex and smoking status. Smoking status were classified by either the concentration of urinary cotinine or subjective answering as a smoker in the questionnaire. Results: Smoking prevalence was 24.6%, 36.2% and 6.7% among all subjects, male and female subjects, respectively. Average smoking amount was 17.5 and 1.5 cigarettes per month among the male subjects and female subjects, respectively. Mean concentration of urinary cotinine among the male subjects was $135.57{\mu}g/{\ell}$, and that of female subjects was $116.59{\mu}g/$. Direct smokers showed higher concentration of urinary cotinine than those of indirect smokers, and subjects with higher urinary concentration showed higher prevalence of smoking, too. Mean concentration of blood cadmium was $0.0572{\mu}g/d{\ell}$ among the male subjects, and $0.0693{\mu}g/d{\ell}$ among the female subjects. Among the male subjects, both exposure biomarkers showed significant correlation to the smoking status, but among the female subjects urinary cotinine did not show significant correlation to the smoking status. Conclusion: Concentrations of these two biomarkers suggested that this population had significantly high evironmental tobacco smoking(ETS) and efficient stop-smoking programs to reduce ETS should be directed to this population.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2002.11b
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• pp.173-173
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• 2002

This study was conducted to compare two biomarkers of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS); urinary cotinine and 1-hydroxypyrene-glucuronide (1-OHPG). Urine samples were collected from 102 junior high school students. Urinary cotinine was determined by GC and urinary 1-OHPG was assayed by synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy (SFS) after immuno-affinity purification using monoclonal antibody 8E11.(omitted)

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.71-76
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• 2001

This study was conducted to determine the urinary nicotine and cotinine concentration in 126 smokers and 143 nonsmokers. While urine samples were being collected, personal characteristics related to smoking habit such as sex, age, number of years since a person has been a smoker, average number of cigarettes consumed per day, and number of smokers in the family were surveyed. Urinary nicotine and cotinine concentration were analyzed by GC/NPD. The smokers smoked an average 17.0 cigarettes per day and the average concentration of nicotine and cotinine was 3.88 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml and 3.64 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml, respectively. The average number of smokers in the family was 0.72 persons and the average concentration of nicotine and cotinine were 0.11 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml and 0.02 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml in the urine of non-smokers, respectively. The concentration of nicotine and cotnine in smoker\`s urine was dependent on the number of cigarettes smoked per day(p<0.01). The number of years since a person had been a smoker, and the number of smokers in the family were not associated with the concentration of nicotine and cotinine. Also there was no significant effects of passive smoking on the family of smokers by the level of nicotine and cotinine concentration. We describe the relationship between smoking habit as assessed by urinary nicotine and cotinine excretion. This study provides an evidence for the assessment of active and passive exposure to tobacco smoke.