Nicotine metabolite ratios in serum and urine among US adults: variations across smoking status, gender and race/ethnicity

摘要

Abstract Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate factors affecting variabilities in the observed levels of nicotine metabolite ratios in serum (NMRS, N = 10,234) and urine (NMRU, N = 2286) for US adults aged ≥20 years.Materials and methods: Data from NHANES were used to fit regression models for log10 transformed values of NMRS and NMRU stratified by gender and smoking status.Results: Females had higher NMRS than males among both smokers and non-smokers. Females had lower NMRU than males among both smokers and non-smokers. Smokers had lower levels of both NMRS and NMRU among both males and females. The order in which NMRS by race/ethnicity was observed was non-Hispanic whites > Hispanics and others > non-Hispanic blacks. The order in which NMRU by race/ethnicity was observed was non-Hispanic blacks > non-Hispanic whites > Hispanics and others. Most of the pairwise differences between non-Hispanic blacks and whites were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.02). Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) at home was associated with higher NMRU among male smokers (2.13 vs. 1.41, p = 0.01).Conclusions: Data on nicotine metabolite ratios can be used to study differences in how nicotine is metabolized by males and females and by smokers and non-smokers.