Accuracy in the measurement of the prevalence of smoking in young people

Abstract

ACCURATE data on smoking prevalence among young people are crucial because they indicate the extent of the problem and provide a baseline against which the effect of interventions can be gauged. In order to improve reliability, standards for wording questions and administering questionnaires are proposed. Objective measurements of smoking such as saliva thiocyanate estimation, appear to have limited value at low levels of cigarette consumption.