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Validation of women's self‐reported smoking status in a Sydney colposcopy clinic
Author(s) -
Donnelly Neil J.,
Ward Jeanette E.,
Dalrymple Chris
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.734
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1479-828X
pISSN - 0004-8666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1479-828x.2000.tb03172.x
Subject(s) - cotinine , medicine , colposcopy , obstetrics , smoking cessation , gynecology , demography , nicotine , cervical cancer , cancer , pathology , sociology
SUMMARY This study validated a self‐reported smoking prevalence questionnaire against urinary cotinine levels among women referred to a Sydney based public hospital colposcopy clinic over the period November 1997 to June 1998. Of 213 eligible women, 160 (75%) agreed to participate. Of these, 151 (94%) completed the smoking prevalence item and 130 (86%) also provided a urine specimen. 40% (95% CI: 33%‐49%) of respondents self‐reported as current smokers. Observed agreement between self‐reported and biochemically validated smoking status was 94% compared with 52% chance agreement (kappa = 0.87, p < 0.001). This high level of agreement was also robust to sensitivity analyses using a more conservative cutoff for the urinary cotinine levels. We conclude that self‐reported smoking status provides valid estimates of actual rates of smoking among women referred with abnormal cervical smears.