Abstract

Introduction: Cotinine, a major nicotine metabolite is a specific biomarker for nicotine exposure. Salivary cotinine levels is an easy and effective alternative for screening large groups especially children and adolescents. The present study was aimed at evaluating prevalence of tobacco consumption habits, determine the age of initiation and correlate the findings with their salivary cotinine levels.

Material and methods: The study was conducted among 95 students from schools in Karad. A validated questionnaire was administered to collect data regarding the awareness and tobacco consumption among the study group. Unstimulated saliva sample (1ml) was also collected on the same appointment and evaluated using Calbiotech salivary cotinine assay (solid phase competitive ELISA test). Cotinine levels of > 10 ng/ml were considered as positive evidence of tobacco use.

Results: It was found that prevalence of tobacco use was 10.5% in the study group. However, an alarming 88% of these adolescents had cotinine levels between 7-10ng/ml which suggest that this group may have been exposed to passive smoking.

Conclusion: A significant proportion of the study group are active tobacco users however an alarming percentage have a significantly high level of possibly passively inhaled environmental tobacco smoke exposure.

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