Salivary cotinine concentrations in daily smokers in Barcelona, Spain: a cross-sectional study

• Published in: BMC public health
• Main Authors: Fu, Marcela, Fernández, Esteve, Martínez Sánchez, Jose María, Pascual, José A, Schiaffino, Anna, Agudo, Antoni, Ariza, Carles, Borràs, Josep M, Samet, Jonathan M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2009
• Subjects: Anàlisi; Fumadors; Saliva; Tabaquisme
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-9-320

Background/nCharacterizing and comparing the determinant of cotinine concentrations in different populations should facilitate a better understanding of smoking patterns and addiction. This study describes and characterizes determinants of salivary cotinine concentration in a sample of Spanish adult daily smoker men and women. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between March 2004 and December 2005 in a representative sample of 1245 people from the general population of Barcelona, Spain. A standard questionnaire was used to gather information on active tobacco smoking and passive exposure, and a saliva specimen was obtained to determine salivary cotinine concentration. Two hundred and eleven adult smokers (>16 years old) with complete data were included in the analysis. Determinants of cotinine concentrations were assessed using linear regression models. Results: Salivary cotinine concentration was associated with the reported number of cigarettes smoked in the previous 24 hours (R2 = 0.339; p < 0.05). The inclusion of a quadratic component for number of cigarettes smoked in the regression analyses resulted in an improvement of the fit (R2 = 0.386; p < 0.05). Cotinine concentration differed significantly by sex, with men having higher levels./nConclusion: This study shows that salivary cotinine concentration is significantly associated with the number of cigarettes smoked and sex, but not with other smoking-related variables. This project was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (grants FIS PI020261 & PI081436) and the Thematic Network of Cooperative Research on Cancer (grant RD06/0020/0089), Government of Spain, and the Ministry of Universities and Research (grant 2009SGR192), Government of Catalonia. We also thank Chupa Chups Spain for providing the Smint® candies.