Objectives To evaluate the urine cadmium (UCd) level of residents and the influencing factors in Guigang, for the profile of chronic Cd exposure in urban and rural population.

Methods A total of 1 035 residents aged ≥ 20 years were enrolled by a two stage cluster sampling method from 10 communities in Guigang.A multilevel model was used to examine the geographic distribution of UCd levels and influencing factors.

Results The geometric mean of UCd for all participants was 0.18 μg/g creatinine (95% CI: 0.17~0.19 μg/g creatinine), and for man and women was 0.13 μg/g creatinine (95% CI: 0.12~0.15 μg/g creatinine), and 0.2 μg/g creatinine (95% CI: 0.18~0.21 μg/g creatinine) respectively.Comparing with non-smokers, the UCd level of male smokers with a smoking index >25 pack-years was 50% higher (95% CI: 1.16~1.94).Comparing with the women who had more animal fat in diet, the concentrations of UCd was 38% higher (95% CI: 1.06~1.78) in women who had more vegetable oil in diet. In addition, there was a regional difference of UCd levels among urban and rural residents, the levels of UCd in suburban residents were higher than that in rural and urban residents.

Conclusions The level of chronic Cd exposure was low in urban and rural residents of Guigang, gender and urban-rural regional differences for UCd levels were observed.