IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/evarev/v1y1977i4p629-638.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Use of Thiocyanate Determination for Indication of Cigarette Smoking Status

Author

Listed:
  • Robert C. Benfari

    (Harvard School of Public Health)

  • Kevin McIntyre

    (Harvard School of Public Health)

  • Mary Jane F. Benfari

    (Harvard School of Public Health)

  • Arthur Baldwin

    (Harvard School of Public Health)

  • Judith Ockene

    (Harvard School of Public Health)

Abstract

The present study was carried out to define the power and efficiency of thiocyanate as a discriminator for smoking status, and to apply some principles of decision and utility analysis to aid in the utilization of the diagnostic test in an intervention program. Data from 652 participants in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) were used to derive the sensitivity and specificity of the thiocyanate test. Predictive values were computed based upon new prevalence estimates in order to determine the predictive validity of the test in various samples of smokers. The second part of the paper investigated the impact of various costs of errors of diagnosis upon an intervention program using thiocyanate as a discriminator variable. Implications for the use in intervention programs of thiocyanate as opposed to screening procedures are discussed .

Suggested Citation

  • Robert C. Benfari & Kevin McIntyre & Mary Jane F. Benfari & Arthur Baldwin & Judith Ockene, 1977. "The Use of Thiocyanate Determination for Indication of Cigarette Smoking Status," Evaluation Review, , vol. 1(4), pages 629-638, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:1:y:1977:i:4:p:629-638
    DOI: 10.1177/0193841X7700100407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X7700100407
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0193841X7700100407?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:1:y:1977:i:4:p:629-638. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.