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. 2022 Jan 3:73:103238.
doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2021.103238. eCollection 2022 Jan.

Evaluation of exposure to secondhand smoke and serum level of interleukin 18 in non-smokers

Alireza Azargoon  1 , Ali Kharazmkia  2 , Nazanin Kordalivand  3 , Mehdi Birjandi  4 , Samareh Mir  5
Affiliations

Evaluation of exposure to secondhand smoke and serum level of interleukin 18 in non-smokers

Alireza Azargoon et al. Ann Med Surg (Lond). .

Abstract

Objective: Smoking is one significant global health care problems, that not only affects the users but also endangers the health of people inhaling the smoke (passive smoking/secondhand smoke). The serum level of IL-18, an important regulator of inherent and acquired immune response, is affected by cigarette smoking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure on IL-18 serum level in non-smoker adults.

Methods: In a case-control study, using easy sampling method, 76 non-smokers who were exposed to cigarette smoke for at least 1 h daily during the past year were considered as exposure group, while 76 of their companions without exposure to cigarette smoke (after matching age) were considered as non-exposure group. Serum IL-18 levels were measured for all participants and finally compared between the two groups using Chi-square test. P value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

Results: The exposure and non-exposure groups included 58 (76.3%) and 25 (32.9%) males, respectively (P < 0.001). The mean ± SD of age for the exposure and non-exposure groups was 35.42 ± 10.37 and 38.47 ± 12.49 years, respectively (P = 0.102). There was no significant difference between the mean serum levels of IL-18 in the exposure (54.81 ± 57.03 ng/ml) and non-exposure (41.49 ± 42.14 ng/ml) groups (P = 0.104).

Conclusion: The exposure to secondhand smoke has no significant effect on serum level of IL-18 in exposed adult individuals. However, more studies with larger sample sizes on different populations are required to confirm these results.

Keywords: Global health; Inflammation; Interleukin-18; Pollution; Smoke; Tobacco.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors deny any conflict of interest in any terms or by any means during the study. All the fees provided by research center fund and deployed accordingly.

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