© 2015, BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.Objectives Exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease. The current study evaluated brief self-report screening measures for accurately identifying adult cardiology patients with clinically significant levels of SHS exposure in need of intervention.Design and setting: A cross-sectional study conducted in a university-affiliated cardiology clinic and cardiology…
Read more© 2015, BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.Objectives Exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease. The current study evaluated brief self-report screening measures for accurately identifying adult cardiology patients with clinically significant levels of SHS exposure in need of intervention.Design and setting: A cross-sectional study conducted in a university-affiliated cardiology clinic and cardiology inpatient service.Patients: Participants were 118 non-smoking patients seeking cardiology services. Main outcome measures: Serum cotinine levels and self-reported SHS exposure in the past 24 h and 7 days on 13 adult secondhand exposure to smoke items.Results: A single item assessment of SHS exposure in one’s own home in the past 7 days was significantly correlated with serum cotinine levels.Conclusions: The single item ASHES-7d Home screener is brief, assesses recent SHS exposure over a week’s time, and yielded the optimal balance of sensitivity and specificity. The current findings support use of the ASHES- 7d Home screener to detect SHS exposure and can be easily incorporated into assessment of other major vital signs in cardiology.