Secondhand smoke (SHS) may be affecting the mentalhealth of children as many mental disorders have an onset in youth, a time whenexposure is high.

Investigation of the potential impact of SHS exposure on children’s mental health.

Forty five SHS exposed Egyptian children were enrolledas group I; all of them had at least one smoking parent and or were exposed toenvironmental tobacco smoke while group II included thirty age and sex wellmatched controls, with neither history of parental smoking nor exposures toenvironmental tobacco smoke. For all studied children, complete history taking,thorough clinical examination, psychometric assessment using Pediatric Symptom BehaviorChecklist (PSCL), Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and IQmeasurement were done. DSM IV TR criteria were used to confirm any suspectedbehavioral and or psychiatric disorder. Laboratory assessment of secondhandsmoke was carried out measuring urinary cotinine levels.

SHSexposed children had significantly higher mean value of urinary cotinine level,total PSCL, and SDQ scores compared to controls (p<0.001, p<0.001,p<0.05 respectively). In studied SHS children, degree of smokingsignificantly positively correlated with PSCL internalization behavior subscoreand emotion subscore of SDQ while smoking index significantly positivelycorrelated with ADHD subscore of SDQ. Meanwhile, prosocial subscore of SDQ andurinary cotinine level were significantly negatively correlated.

SHS exposure significantly compromised mental health of thestudied sample of Egyptian SHS exposed children.