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


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Fu
Marcela
M
Tobacco Control & Research Unit, Institut Català d'Oncologia (ICO-IDIBELL), Av. Gran Via de L'Hospitalet 199-203, 08907 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Spain. mfu@iconcologia.net
Fernandez
Esteve
E
Martínez-Sánchez
Jose M
JM
Pascual
José A
JA
Schiaffino
Anna
A
Agudo
Antoni
A
Ariza
Carles
C
Borràs
Josep M
JM
Samet
Jonathan M
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003367:Cotinine / Q000032:analysis*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D012907:Smoking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014026:Nicotiana
D003367:Cotinine