Abstract
BackgroundOver one-quarter of all smokers in the United States identify as non-daily smokers and this number is projected to rise. Unlike daily smokers who typically maintain consistent levels of nicotine exposure with regular smoking, non-daily smokers have variable patterns of smoking that likely result in high intraindividual variability in nicotine intake. The current study aimed to characterize the weekly intraindividual variability in cotinine and identify smoking-related predictors in nondaily smokers.MethodsAn ecological momentary assessment of 60 non-daily smokers ages 24–57 years was conducted over a consecutive 7-day at-home protocol to log each smoking session, assessments of mood and social activity during smoking, and collection of daily saliva samples in a convenience sample from Pennsylvania, USA. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the effects of smoking characteristics on total cotinine exposure measured by pharmacokinetic area under the curve and the range, maximum, and minimum cotinine values during the week controlling for demographic variables.ResultsThe mean daily cotinine level was 119.2 ng/ml (SD = 168.9) with individual values that ranged from nondetectable to 949.6 ng/ml. Menthol predicted increased total cotinine levels (P < 0.05). Shorter time to the first cigarette of the day predicted significantly higher minimum (P < 0.05), maximum (P < 0.05), and total cotinine values (P < 0.05) after controlling for covariates. Negative emotions and social interactions with others were also significantly associated with higher cotinine metrics. There was no significant effect of the nicotine metabolite ratio.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the variability in nicotine exposure across days among non-daily smokers and point to the role of smoking context in nicotine exposure. The findings suggest the need to develop better assessment methods to determine health and dependence risk and personalized cessation interventions for this heterogeneous and growing group of smokers.
Highlights
Over one-quarter of all smokers in the United States identify as non-daily smokers and this number is projected to rise
The current study highlights that nicotine exposure as measured by cotinine among non-daily smokers is as variable as their self-reported patterns of smoking behavior
Nicotine exposure for non-daily smokers varies with behavioral measures of dependence and contextual factors that have been found with samples of daily smokers
Summary
Over one-quarter of all smokers in the United States identify as non-daily smokers and this number is projected to rise. One-quarter to one-third of all smokers in the U.S identify as non-daily smokers who do not smoke a cigarette every day [2, 4]. A large national survey found that non-daily smokers were more likely to make a quit attempt and maintain abstinence at 90 days than daily smokers [7]. The rates of abstinence for non-daily smokers with and without a prior history of daily smoking are still quite low, 27 and 18% respectively, especially considering that approximately half of non-daily smokers are not nicotine dependent [7, 8]. Non-daily use still puts smokers at risk for adverse health outcomes
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