Gender differences in subjective reactions to cigarette smoke with varying nicotine levels: A pilot study

Sensory stimuli associated with exposure to nicotine appear to play a critical role in the maintenance of smoking behaviors. Emerging evidence suggests that females and males may differ in terms of mechanisms that maintain tobacco smoking, including sensory stimulation; albeit the findings are mixed. This study evaluated male and female smokers (N=31) on their subjective reactions to low nicotine QuestRTM 1 and denicotinized Quest RTM 3 cigarettes using a mixed design. Sensory reactions to smoking were evaluated on the factors of participants' satisfaction, aversion, enjoyable sensations, reduced craving, and psychological reward. On the factor of enjoyable sensations, female participants rated the two cigarette types more similarly than male participants. However, female participants smoked significantly more of the nicotine cigarettes relative to the denicotinized cigarettes compared to males. The subjective ratings of cigarettes suggest that sensory factors of cigarettes may be more important in maintaining smoking behaviors in females than males.