Smoking and weight control behaviors

Objective: To examine the association between weight control and tobacco use in young women. Methods: Smoking status and weight and eating related issues, endorsement of the belief "smoking helps to control weight", dieting status (DEBQ-R), current and ideal weight and current height were assessed in 144 students. Results: Smoker (S) restrained eaters (RE) scored higher on dietary restraint than nonsmoker (NS) RE. In the smoking questionnaire, S-RE selected a significantly higher number of items concerning hunger, eating and weight than S unrestrained eaters (URE). S-RE had a greater level of endorsement of the belief: "smoking helps to control weight" than NS-URE. The subjects who marked those items had significantly higher scores in the DEBQ-R and were more likely to be RE than those who marked none of them. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that among young women who smoke and diet there might be a risk group that smokes as a weight control strategy. ©2005, Editrice Kurtis.