A new research publication coauthored by the Wadsworth Center’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences highlights a link between secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure and sleep disturbances in children. SHS remains a significant public health concern, and emerging evidence suggests it can adversely affect sleep through both biological and behavioral mechanisms. Previous studies examining SHS and sleep outcomes in children have produced inconsistent findings, largely due to differences in how exposure was measured – often relying on interviewer-administered questionnaires, adult-reported data, or less precise exposure assessments rather than objective biomarkers.
In this study, Wadsworth Center researchers Dr. Patrick Parsons and Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan collaborated with environmental epidemiologists at the University of Kentucky to evaluate SHS exposure in a longitudinal cohort of rural Appalachian children living in Marietta and Cambridge, Ohio, and surrounding communities. Serum samples collected from children aged 7-9 years were analyzed for cotinine, a biomarker of tobacco smoke exposure, at the Wadsworth Center. It was found that serum cotinine concentrations were significantly associated with sleep disturbances in children, while questionnaire-based measures of SHS exposure showed no association. These findings underscore the importance of using serum cotinine as an indicator of SHS exposure when assessing health outcomes such as sleep disturbance in pediatric populations.
These findings reinforce the need to maintain smoke-free environments in settings where children live, play, and sleep, to protect their health and well-being. Further details: www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2025.1663801/full