[Childhood passive smoking and purulent meningitis]

The relationship between purulent meningitis and passive smoking were investigated in 63 children with purulent meningitis aged 1-12 years against 63 children with non-purulent meningitis as control. It was found that the odds ratio of purulent meningitis for children receiving passive smoking was 3.0, and the 95% confident limit was greater than 1 (P < 0.05). There was significant dose-effect relationship between the daily dosage of cigarette smoked by family members and the odds ratio of purulent meningitis (P < 0.005). It suggests that passive smoking is one of the risk factors for purulent meningitis.