Objective: We evaluated the validity of blood 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) for determining smoking status using population-based data.
Methods: We obtained blood DMF concentrations and smoking status from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2006 and computed sensitivity, specificity and Kappa statistic.
Results: Self-reported smoking showed very high agreement (Kappa = 92.8-93.3%) in daily smokers and fair agreement in non-daily smokers (Kappa = 33.7-36.4%). Coffee intake did not influence the detection of blood DMF.
Conclusions: Blood DMF has comparable sensitivity and specificity with serum cotinine for identifying current daily smokers, which may make it a useful biomarker in epidemiologic studies.
Keywords: 2; 5-dimethylfuran; NHANES; cotinine; environmental tobacco smoke; volatile organic compound.