Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Feb 3;166(7):1680-1689.
doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003517.

An examination of acrylamide and cadmium as possible mediators of the association between cigarette smoking and chronic musculoskeletal pain

Codjo Djignefa Djade  1   2   3 , Caroline Diorio  1   2 , Danielle Laurin  2   3   4 , Denis Talbot  1   2 , Pierre-Hugues Carmichael  2   3 , Clermont E Dionne  1   2   3   5
Affiliations

An examination of acrylamide and cadmium as possible mediators of the association between cigarette smoking and chronic musculoskeletal pain

Codjo Djignefa Djade et al. Pain. .

Abstract

Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) causes significant health loss worldwide and is one of the major public health issues of our time. Cigarette smoking is an independent risk factor of CMP. The present study examined the potential mediating role of 2 subproducts of cigarette smoke, acrylamide and cadmium, individually and combined, on the association between cigarette smoking and CMP, using the Inverse Odds Ratio Weighting (IORW) method. Analyses were conducted on data from 3670 adults who participated to National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2003 to 2004. When smoking was measured with serum cotinine levels, there was an association of moderate and heavy smoking {adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] >30 ng/mL = 1.99 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.44-2.74)} with CMP, but no association between light smoking and CMP (aOR 1-30 ng/mL = 1.17 [95% CI: 0.75-1.80]) as compared to nonsmoking. Small indirect effects were identified through acrylamide (aOR = 1.24 [95% CI: 0.96-1.61]) and cadmium (aOR = 1.56 [95% CI: 0.92-2.63]) only among moderate and heavy smokers. When both biomarkers were considered together, their indirect effect was larger (aOR = 2.07 [95% CI: 1.32-3.23]). These results suggest that the association between cigarette smoking and CMP is mediated by acrylamide and cadmium and that these substances, also present in food and the environment, may serve as biomarkers of CMP.

Keywords: Acrylamide; Biomarkers; Cadmium; Chronic musculoskeletal pain; Cigarette smoking; Cotinine; Mediation analyses.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Abate M, Vanni D, Pantalone A, Salini V. Cigarette smoking and musculoskeletal disorders. Muscles Ligaments Tendons J 2013;3:63–9.
    1. Ahluwalia N, Dwyer J, Terry A, Moshfegh A, Johnson C. Update on NHANES Dietary Data: focus on collection, release, analytical considerations, and uses to inform public policy. Adv Nutr 2016;7:121–34.
    1. Available at: https://salimetrics.com/guidelines-for-interpreting-cotinine-levels-unit... . Accessed February 17, 2023.
    1. Benowitz NL, Jacob P. Metabolism of nicotine to cotinine studied by a dual stable isotope method. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1994;56:483–93.
    1. Bodin J, Garlantezec R, Costet N, Descatha A, Viel JF, Roquelaure Y. Risk factors for shoulder pain in a cohort of French workers: a structural equation model. Am J Epidemiol 2018;187:206–13.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources