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Feb. 8 - Self Reporting of Smoking in Elderly Often Inaccurate

More elderly adults are lighting up cigarettes and not reporting their nicotine habits to doctors and others, according to findings from one of the first studies to examine the accuracy of self-reported smoking habits by age, race and gender of adults 18 years and older by researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and other university collaborators.

The researchers conducted their study by identifying self-reported non-smokers from 15, 182 adults in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They examined usage by age groups of 18-34, 35-54, 55-74, and 75-90. Groups of men and women were broken down by race and ethnicity into Mexican American, non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black groups. The age group of 60 and older was also broken down into cognitively competent.

"Denying smoking overall increased with age from 6% of 18-34 year olds to 25% of the elderly over the age of 75," said the article's lead author, Monica Fisher, PhD, DDS, MS, MPH, an associate professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine.

Researchers compared the participant's self-reported smoking habits to blood levels of cotinine, to see if self-reported smoking habits matched the blood test. The researchers also used cotinine levels of 15ng/ml or greater to rule out individuals exposed to second-hand smoke. They also eliminated cigar, pipe or smokeless tobacco users from the study.

While researchers detected true smokers, the segment that occasionally smokes was potentially missed, which could raise the number of people who smoke. Researchers concluded that caution is needed when using self-reported nicotine use as part of survey data and that additional measures are needed to validate who does or doesn't smoke.

Source: Case Western Reserve University

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