DOES SMOKING CESSATION IMPROVE HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE

This article examines whether smokers who enrolled in a community-base d smoking cessation program and were successful in quitting for a six- month period had better health- related quality-of-life at six months relative to those who relapsed. An observational, longitudinal design was used; the sample included 350 participants 18-65 years of age. He alth-related quality-of-life was measured using a broad array of indic ators of physical and mental health. Six-month outcomes were compared between successful quitters and relapsers using analysis of covariance . Those who quit for. six months had better psychological well-being, cognitive functioning, energy/fatigue, sleep adequacy, self-esteem, se nse of mastery, and worse role functioning at six months than those wh o continued to smoke (p values < .05). No differences were observed in physical and social functioning, pain, or current health perceptions. There were no significant differences at enrollment in health-related quality-of-life between those who quit subsequently and those who rel apsed, thus quality-of-life measures did not predict smoking status. W e conclude that smokers who quit can possibly anticipate improvements in a range of mental health outcomes within six months, which could be come an additional incentive to quit. Subsequent smoking cessation stu dies should include health-related quality-of-life measures to determi ne the generalizability of these findings.