Weight gain as a barrier to smoking cessation among military personnel

Purpose. To assess the relationships between active-duty military status, m ilitary weight standards, concern about weight gain, and anticipated relaps e after smoking cessation. Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting. Hospital-based tobacco cessation Program. Subjects. Two hundred fifty-two enrollees, of 253 eligible, to a tobacco ce ssation program in 1999 (135 men, 117 women; 43% on active duty in the mili tary). Measures. Independent variables included gender, body mass index (weight/he ight(2)), and military status. Dependent variables included concern about w eight gain with smoking cessation and anticipated relapse. Results. In multivariate regression analyses that controlled for gender and body mass index, active-duly military status was associated with an elevat ed Level of concern about weight gain (1.9-point increase on a 10-point sca le; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0- to 2.8-point increase), as well as h igher anticipated relapse (odds ratio [OR] = 3.6, 95% CT, 1.3 to 9.8). Amon g subjects who were close to or over the U.S. Air Force maximum allowable w eight for height, the analogous OR for active-duty military status was 6.9 (p = .02). Conclusions. Occupational weight standards or expectations may pose additio nal barriers for individuals contemplating or attempting smoking cessation, as they do among active-duty military personnel. These barriers are likely to hinder efforts to decrease smoking Prevalence in certain groups.