Measurement Core

The AAP Richmond Center's Measurement Core initiative aims to ensure consistency in the methodologies utilized across research projects at the Center. The Measurement Core team reviewed multiple sources of questions on secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure to develop a standardized set of questions in order to help advance the field of SHS research. 
 
The measures are presented here to assist other tobacco control researchers in their work. These questions can be used for any audience including adults, children, and families. The source of each measure is listed on each categorical page, or can be viewed all together. 
 
AAP Richmond Center investigators are currently working on validating many of these survey items against a variety of biomarkers of SHS exposure in children including urine cotinine, NNAL, and others. These results will be posted as they become available. 

View the measures by category: 

• SHS Exposure and Use 
• Attitude and Knowledge 
• Demographics 
• Other 

Reference Articles

The articles listed below have been used by Richmond Center researchers during the course of their work to standardize the measurement of tobacco and SHS exposure. They are shared here in hopes that other researchers will find them helpful. This section will be kept up-to-date as more articles become available. If you know of any additional articles that would be beneficial to share with others, please send them via our Contact Us form with the subject 'Measurement Core Article'.

• Assessing secondhand smoke exposure with reported measures -  Tobacco Control, published online September 4, 2012; Erika Avila-Tang, et al. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050296 
• Assessing secondhand smoke using biological markers - Tobacco Control, published online September 2, 2012; Erika Avila-Tang, et al. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050298 
• Impact of Environmental Tobacco Smoke on Children With Asthma, United States, 2003–2010 - Academic Pediatrics, 2013, 1–9; Lara J. Akinbami, et al. 
• Racial Differences in Hair Nicotine Concentrations Among Smokers - Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 14(8), 933–941; Benjamin J. Apelberg, et al. 
• Steroid responsiveness and wheezing phenotypes - Pediatric Respiratory Reviews, 12(3), 170–176; Francine M. Ducharme, Maja Krajinovic. doi:10.1016/j.prrv.2011.02.007 
• Thirdhand smoke causes DNA damage in human cells - Mutagenesis, 28(4), 381–391; Bo Hang, et al 

Biomarker Testing Resources 

• Tobacco Biomarkers Core: UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center 
  This lab, at the University of California San Francisco, provides services to measure tobacco exposure biomarkers and selected carcinogen biomarkers in biological samples. 

Additional Related Resources 

Other research tools include:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Smoking and Health Resource Library 
  The CDC, through its Office on Smoking and Health, maintains a comprehensive database of materials related to tobacco, including reports, dissertations, books, journal articles, and policy documents. 
• Cochrane Reviews by topic "Tobacco Addiction" 
  The Cochrane Library explores the evidence for and against the effectiveness and appropriateness of treatments (medications, surgery, education, etc) in specific circumstances. 
• Tobacco Charts 
  These charts provide illustration of the changes states have experienced after raising their state cigarette taxes or passing statewide smoke-free laws. 
• Truth Tobacco Industry Documents 
  Truth Tobacco Industry Documents (formerly known as Legacy Tobacco Documents Library) was built to house and provide permanent access to tobacco industry internal corporate documents produced during litigation between US States and the seven major tobacco industry organizations and other sources.