Impact of Weight Concern on Post-Cessation Weight Management, Smoking Cessation, and Program Engagement.

Purpose: Weight concern is a barrier to smoking cessation. We examined the impact of weight concern on post-cessation weight gain, abstinence and program engagement.

Design: Randomized-controlled trial.

Setting: Telephone-based and group-based intervention sessions.

Subjects: 305 participants were randomized and analyzed.

Intervention: Participants were randomized to receive a self-guided intervention, a weight loss intervention, or a weight stability intervention prior to all receiving the same smoking cessation intervention.

Measures: Level of weight concern on three measures, point-prevalence abstinence, weight change, and session attendance at 12 months.

Analysis: Continuous and discrete outcomes were compared between weight-concerned and non-weight-concerned participants using two-sample t-tests and chi-square tests respectively.

Results: There were no significant differences in weight change (range: +1.77, -1.91 kg) when comparing weight-concerned and non-weight-concerned participants. Point-prevalence abstinence ranged from 36% to 64%, with no differences by condition based on level of weight concern. There were no significant differences in session attendance by weight concern (Weight sessions: 50-70%, Smoking cessation sessions: 41-56%, Booster sessions: 28-45%). Weight concern, on all measures, significantly decreased between screening and 2 months (after the weight management intervention), for most of the comparisons made overall and by condition.

Conclusion: It may not be necessary to screen for weight concerns in smoking cessation and/or post-cessation weight management programs, as the trial interventions were beneficial regardless of weight concern.