Beyond self-reports: serum cotinine reveals sex-and age-related differences of smoking on all-cause and disease-specific mortality.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It is well-known that sex and age play critical roles in smoking-related diseases and mortality. However, quantification of the extent of smoking requires self-reports in these studies, which may yield only partially accurate results. This study investigated sex-and age-related differences in the association between smoking and all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality by measuring serum cotinine levels.

Methods

Participants aged 20-85 years from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2018) were included. All-cause and disease-specific mortality data were obtained from publicly available user-linked mortality files. Multivariate Cox regression was performed to identify serum cotinine as an independent risk factor of mortality.

SUBMITTER: Jiang Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11873280 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature