MONTREAL -- One in five women ages 18 to 24 are smokers, and most of
them say they keep lighting up for fear of gaining weight, U.S. researchers
said.
Melissa Napolitano, a clinical psychologist at Temple University, and a team
of researchers looked at the smoking habits and weight gain of women in the
age group. The first phase of the study collected data from focus groups who
stated that stress, peer pressure and weight management were the main
reasons why they smoked.
The results laid the groundwork for a small pilot study of 24 women who were
randomly assigned to either a supervised group exercise program or body
image group counseling sessions. All women were provided with a nicotine
patch as well.
After eight weeks, the body image counseling group showed a rate of smoking
cessation that was more than double that of the exercise group -- 18 percent
versus 8 percent.
In addition, the body image group lost more than three times the weight of
their exercise counterparts -- 3.3 pounds versus less than a pound.
The findings were presented at the Society for Behavioral Medicine's annual
meeting in Montreal.
Source : United Press International
