Life-history correlates of environmental tobacco smoke: a study on nonsmoking Hong Kong Chinese wives with smoking versus nonsmoking husbands.

Studies to evaluate the effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS, passive smoking) often use nonsmoking wives with smoking discordant husbands. To see whether there were differences in exposures and behavior patterns among never-smoked wives with never-smoked vs ever-smoked husbands, the life-history profiles of 136 ever-married women with mean age of 59 were analyzed on 97 quantifiable variables. Overall, the results demonstrated that wives with never-smoked husbands had 'healthier' lifestyles than wives with smoking husbands. The former were better off in terms of socio-economic status, more conscientious housewives, ate better diets, and had better indices of family cohesiveness. They also fared better in variables that reflected health status with lower frequencies of the following: miscarriages/abortions, inhaling through the mouth, chronic cough, and chest X-rays. The differences were usually largest when comparing wives of never-smoked vs heavily smoking (greater than 20 cigarettes/day) husbands. The results indicate some correlates of passive smoking that can act as important confounders when evaluating health risks among families with smoking husbands.