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Kelly Johnson, MD, of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, and colleagues identified a link between secondhand smoke exposure and bladder irritation in children.
“We evaluated 45 children between the ages of 4–17 years with bladder irritation. We divided these children into groups based on symptom severity (very mild, mild, moderate, and severe),” Johnson said. “Children with more significant exposure to secondhand smoke had a higher degree of bladder irritation. We found that 28% of the children with urinary dysfunction evaluated had exposure to secondhand smoke, which is 13% higher than the New Jersey statewide average.”
Overall, children with greater exposure to secondhand smoke had higher symptom severity scores, especially children between 4–10 years of age.
