International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.
Dis Markers. 2009;27(5):187-92. doi: 10.3233/DMA-2009-0661.
The purpose of this study was to estimate black/white differences in cotinine levels for current smokers of both sexes, and to explore the potential contribution of mentholated cigarettes to these differences. Sera from 255 current smokers sampled from Southern Community Cohort Study participants (65 black men, 65 black women, 63 white men, 62 white women) were analyzed for cotinine, and linear regression was used to model the effect of race on cotinine level, adjusting for the number of cigarettes smoked within the last 24 hours, use of menthol vs. non-menthol cigarettes, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, and age. Black smokers smoked fewer cigarettes than white smokers, yet had crude mean cotinine levels nearly as high or higher than white smokers. After multivariate adjustment, cotinine levels were an average of 50 ng/ml higher among black than white women (p=0.008) and non-significantly 12 ng/ml higher among black than white men (p=0.52). We observed no increase in cotinine levels associated with menthol cigarette use. We conclude that differences in cotinine levels among smokers suggest racial variation in exposure to and/or metabolism of tobacco smoke constituents, but our findings do not support a role for menthol preference in this disparity.
本研究旨在估计男女当前吸烟者中可替宁水平的黑/白差异，并探讨薄荷醇香烟对此差异的潜在贡献。从南方社区队列研究参与者中抽取的 255 名当前吸烟者的血清样本（65 名黑人男性、65 名黑人女性、63 名白人男性、62 名白人女性）进行了可替宁分析，并使用线性回归模型来模拟种族对可替宁水平的影响，调整了最近 24 小时内吸烟的香烟数量、使用薄荷醇香烟与非薄荷醇香烟、暴露于环境烟草烟雾以及年龄。黑人吸烟者吸烟量少于白人吸烟者，但未经调整的可替宁平均水平与白人吸烟者相近或更高。经多变量调整后，黑人女性的可替宁水平比白人女性平均高 50ng/ml（p=0.008），黑人男性的可替宁水平比白人男性非显著高 12ng/ml（p=0.52）。我们没有观察到与薄荷醇香烟使用相关的可替宁水平升高。我们得出的结论是，吸烟者的可替宁水平差异表明烟草烟雾成分的暴露和/或代谢存在种族差异，但我们的研究结果不支持薄荷醇偏好在这种差异中起作用。
