National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The smoking and tobacco use – secondhand smoke exposure (variable name prefix SMQSHS) questionnaire provides information on potential exposure to other persons’ cigarette and tobacco smoke in various indoor environments over the past 7 days.

All participants were eligible.

The questions were asked as part of the Sample Person questionnaire, in the home, using the Computer-Assisted Personal interview (CAPI) system for persons 18+ years, and to proxy respondents for persons 0-11 years. Youths 12-17 were asked the questions using CAPI during the MEC Interview.

The CAPI system is programmed with built-in consistency checks to reduce data entry errors. CAPI also uses online help screens to assist interviewers in defining key terms used in the questionnaire.

For each environment where exposure to secondhand smoke may have occurred (job, bar, restaurant, other homes, other indoor place) a filter question was asked to determine first whether the respondent was in this location during the past 7 days. When the response was “no,” the respondent was not asked the follow-up question about exposure to smokers at the location. Only adults 18+ years were asked about tobacco exposure in their workplaces and in bars. The variable SMAQUEX designates the age group and mode of the questionnaire.

Questions that identify persons who smoke inside the home are found in SMQFAM. Questions on smoking and other tobacco use are located in SMQ and SMQRTU data files. In addition, biochemical of tobacco exposure, including serum cotinine measurements, are found in the NHANES laboratory data files.

The NHANES full sample 2-Year MEC Exam Weights (WTMEC2YR) can be used to analyze the 2015-2016 SMQSHS variables in conjunction with the laboratory measurements on tobacco exposure, or any examination-related data.  Please refer to the NHANES Analytic Guidelines and the on-line NHANES Tutorial for further details on the use of sample weights and other analytic issues.