ArticleCureus2026
Smoking Status and HbA1c in U.S. Adults Without Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Analysis.
Article in Cureus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCigarette smoking is a recognized risk factor for type 2 diabetes, and prior work has reported higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels among smokers. Whether this reflects a direct metabolic effect of smoking or residual confounding by central adiposity, systemic inflammation, and lipid dysregulation remains unclear, and whether the association persists after cessation in adults without diabetes has not been fully characterized.
aimWe examined associations between smoking and HbA1c among United States (U.S.) adults, and whether these associations vary by diabetes status.
methodsWe analyzed National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 2015-2018 for adults aged ≥20 years. Smoking was assessed by self-report and serum cotinine. Survey-weighted multivariable linear regression was used to evaluate the association between smoking and HbA1c in the full population (N=9,214) and in adults without diabetes (N=7,328), adjusting for demographics, blood pressure, waist circumference, lipids, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP).
resultsAfter adjustment for cardiometabolic covariates, there was no statistically significant association between smoking and HbA1c in the full population (former: β=0.029%, p=0.30; current: β=0.053%, p=0.13). Among adults without diabetes, former smoking was not associated with HbA1c, whereas current smoking remained significantly associated (former: β=-0.001%, p=0.923; current: β=0.067%, p<0.001). These findings were similar when cotinine was used as the exposure measure, with active smoking (≥3.0 ng/mL) associated with higher HbA1c among non-diabetic adults (p<0.001), but not in the full population.
conclusionsAmong adults without diabetes, current smoking was statistically significantly associated with higher HbA1c, whereas former smoking was not. The formal smoking × diabetes interaction test did not reach statistical significance, so the subgroup pattern should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating. The absence of a significant association in former smokers is compatible with attenuation following cessation. These findings may inform cessation counseling and diabetes screening and warrant replication in larger, adequately powered studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.