¹Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Addictive Substance Project, Tokyo, Japan, ²Niigata University, Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan, ³University of Yamanashi, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Yamanashi, Japan, ⁴National Institute of Mental Health National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Department of Neuropsychopharmacology, Tokyo, Japan

Background: There are individual differences in susceptibility to smoking, and multiple factors including genetic and lifestyle factors would be involved in the susceptibility. The genetic contribution of smoking is estimated from twin studies to be around 0.5. Many genetic factors, including single nucleotide variations, have been reported to be involved in smoking, but most have low effect sizes and have not been reproducible in subsequent studies. Few analyses have been conducted on life and environmental factors related to smoking.

Aims & Objectives: The present study focused on eating habits during the developmental period to identify lifestyle factors related to smoking.

Method: This study included 628 patients who were treated at White Dental Clinic (Saitama, Japan). All of the patients provided written informed consent before participating in the study. Twenty patients were excluded because of incomplete data. The participants completed a questionnaire that consisted of various questions about smoking behaviors and eating habits. The associations between smoking-related traits and eating habits were statistically evaluated using the chi-square test. The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science.

Results: Patients who ate more sweet foods during their developmental years had lower rates of smoking (χ² = 9.623; p < 0.01).

Discussion & Conclusions: Sweet, sour, and salty tastes are sensations elicited via their unique receptors. Nicotine intake by smoking would act on the central nervous system via the taste buds in the mouth before being taken up into the bloodstream. The formation of neural circuits via taste receptors during the developmental period may influence the rewarding effects of nicotine in adulthood. This study suggests the possibility of developing a new drug for nicotine abstinence.