Obesity: Is weight gain after smoking cessation an important concern?

摘要

Smokers have an increased risk of morbidity and mortality as a result of their addiction, with smoking being responsible for 5.1 million deaths worldwide annually. When commenced early in life, smoking often persists across the life course. Smoking has a dose-response effect on BMI, with smokers with a lifelong habit more likely to have a BMI in the healthy reference range (18.5-24.9 kg/m~2) or even below it, compared with individuals who have never smoked. Data on the effects of smoking on body weight among young smokers are conflicting. A large prospective study suggested that adolescents who smoke gain less weight than their nonsmoking peers, whereas cross-sectional data showed no differences in the BMI of young adults when they were categorized by their smoking status. Although adult smokers across all ages have a lower body weight than nonsmokers, smoking encourages central fat distribution, particularly in women, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. In a meta-analysis, Aubin et al. quantified weight gain in smokers at 1, 2, 3,6 and 12 months after smoking cessation and found that previous reports had underestimated the extent of weight gained.