Concordance between cigarette smoking and the modified Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire in controlled studies of ADHD.

Pediatric Psychopharmacology Program, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. twilens@partners.org

Our objective was to compare scores on a smoking questionnaire to a diagnosis of cigarette smoking. As part of follow-ups in studies of ADHD, we assessed for cigarette smoking using structured interviews and the modified Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire (mFTQ). Data were obtained from 162 subjects (mean = 19.2 yrs). ROC analysis and kappa coefficients revealed that a cutoff score of 3 on the mFTQ showed the strongest agreement with a full diagnosis of cigarette smoking (kappa = 0.68). Clinicians and researchers using the mFTQ in adolescents and young adults should consider a cutoff score of 3 to be indicative of cigarette smoking.

PMID: 19034741 [PubMed - in process]

PMCID: PMC2596659 [Available on 2009/11/01]