CHANGES OVER TIME IN WEIGHT CONCERNS AMONG WOMEN SMOKERS ENGAGED IN THE CESSATION PROCESS

Weight concerns have been reported by women smokers to be barriers to initial cessation and to sustained abstinence. This article examines t he temporal patterns of weight concerns and self-efficacy for cessatio n among three groups of women smokers: non-quitters, short-term quitte rs, and long-term quitters, Subjects were 417 women aged 20-64 who had participated in a randomized smoking cessation intervention trial. Ov er the twelve-month follow-up, long-term quitters reported greater inc reases in weight gain, pain and worry related to weight, dieting behav iors, and self-efficacy for maintaining cessation in eating-related si tuations compared to non-quitters and short-term quitters. In multivar iate analyses, increases in pain and worry about weight and in self-ef ficacy in eating-related situations were significantly associated with sustained abstinence. Cessation-specific weight concerns and dieting were not associated with sustained abstinence. implications of these r esults for intervention design are discussed.