Urinary dysfunction in children is associated with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke Dona Schneider a , Marc Colaco c, *, Paul Markowski b , Joseph G. Barone b a Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA b Division of Urology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA c Department of Urology, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC, USA Received 30 January 2013; accepted 3 April 2013 Available online 20 May 2013 KEYWORDS Environmental tobacco smoke; Urinary dysfunction; Voiding Abstract Objective: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is known to cause significant morbidity across a wide variety of organ systems. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of ETS exposure with pediatric urinary dysfunction. Patients and methods: Participants were drawn from a university-based pediatric urology practice throughout the first half of 2011. All patients who presented with a chief complaint of urinary dysfunction were approached to participate (N Z 184). Exclusion criteria eliminated all but 71 subjects. Of these, 68 subjects and their parents completed age-appropriate ques- tionnaires on ETS exposure and symptom severity. Data were analyzed using descriptive statis- tics and relationship between exposure and outcome was evaluated via Spearman correlation analysis. Results: A total of 68 children with no known etiology for their urinary dysfunction were eval- uated for symptom severity and ETS exposure. Participants demonstrated a significant positive correlation (rho Z 0.592 for those 4e10 years; rho Z 0.415 for those 11e17 years) between ETS exposure and severity of their urinary symptoms. Conclusions: These data indicate a positive relationship between ETS exposure and urinary dysfunction among children with no other obvious etiology for their symptoms. Physicians should inform parents of the potential dangers of childhood ETS exposure, including the possible relationship with urinary dysfunction. ª 2013 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abbreviations: ETS, environmental tobacco smoke. * Corresponding author. Marc Colaco, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Tel.: þ1 908 230 6698; fax: þ1 908 353 7201. E-mail addresses: colacoma@umdnj.edu, marc.colaco@gmail.com (M. Colaco). 1477-5131/$36 ª 2013 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpurol.2013.04.009 Journal of Pediatric Urology (2013) 9, 1116e1121