G. Mercadoortiz et al., REVERSE SMOKING AND PALATAL MUCOSAL CHANGES IN FILIPINO WOMEN - EPIDEMIOLOGIC FEATURES, Australian dental journal, 41(5), 1996, pp. 300-303
The habit of reverse smoking is practised in Various parts of the worl
d including the Philippines. In this pilot, community-based, cross-sec
tional study carried out in the region of Cabanatuan City in the Phili
ppines, 61 Filipina reverse smokers and 30 Filipina conventional smoke
rs were interviewed and clinically examined. Seven demographic variabl
es and twelve habit variables were compared in the two study groups. T
he majority (96.7 per cent) of reverse smokers exhibited palatal mucos
al changes including leukoplakia, mucosal thickening, fissuring: pigme
ntation, nodularity, erythema and ulceration. In comparison, only 26.7
per cent of conventional smokers exhibited mucosal changes predominan
tly focal pigmentation acid mild erythema. This difference was statist
ically significant at a X(2) value of 47.28 (p<.001). Analysis of the
other variables indicated that the two study groups differed significa
ntly with regard to age (p<.05), educational attainment (p<.01), use o
f filtered versus non-filtered cigarettes (p<.001) and duration of smo
king in years (p<.01).