Exercise to Enhance Smoking Cessation: the Getting Physical on Cigarette Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

An exercise-aided NRT smoking cessation program with built-in maintenance components enhances post-intervention cessation rates at week 14 but not at weeks 26 and 56.

Exercise as a Sex-Specific Treatment for Substance Use Disorder

“…There are also individual differences in the efficacy of exercise as a smoking cessation aid with evidence for enhanced efficacy in some individuals (e.g., women with moderate-to-severe depression; 22 also see 25), but not apparent in others (individuals with low anxiety sensitivity; 23; pregnant woman; 56). Its long-term efficacy also remains controversial with results from a systematic review revealing significant long-term improvement in only 2 of 20 trials (at the ≥3 month follow-up; 57; also see 21–22,24–25,56). However, the majority of these studies are insufficiently powered for detecting long-term effects, and in many studies, exercise adherence is low/not verified and/or levels of exercise are not different from controls (e.g.…”

“…Most of the recent evidence in this regard has been provided by studies conducted in men and women with tobacco and other substance use disorders showing that exercise reduces withdrawal symptoms including craving and negative affect (7–9,12–20). Studies in male and female smokers further suggest the potential for exercise to prevent relapse and improve treatment outcomes when combined with other smoking cessation treatments (21–25). Although few controlled trials have been conducted on exercise as a relapse intervention for other drugs of abuse, several recent pilot studies conducted in individuals, mostly men, undergoing treatment for substance use disorder demonstrate its feasibility and potential efficacy (26–33).…”

Smoking cessation during pregnancy and the potential role of exercise: A narrative review

“…All smoking cessation programs (including exercise-aided ones) show early promise followed by relapse effects at program completion and follow-up (58,62,63). Therefore, it is vital that these types of programs have both initial cessation and exercise maintenance components to initiate the behavior as well as prevent relapse in the targeted behaviors (64). This important issue has been highlighted as a primary research concern in the knowledge synthesis of exercise and smoking cessation literature (61).…”

mActive-Smoke: A Prospective Observational Study Using Mobile Health Tools to Assess the Association of Physical Activity With Smoking Urges (Preprint)

“…For instance, Abrantes et al [20] conducted an exercise intervention study in which participants selfreported exercise in weekly activity logs. Prapavessis et al [19] also designed an exerciseintervention smoking cessation trial in which participants self-reported cigarette consumption on a weekly basis. As such, both studies were limited by subjective measurement tools, and their results were likely compromised by recall bias [23] -a major threat to the internal validity of studies using self-reported data [42,43].…”

“…Regarding the latter, these studies only assessed acute effects of exercise on smoking urges, leaving uncertainty around the longitudinal association. While several longer-term studies have indicated than an increase in physical activity may decrease smoking behavior [17][18][19][20][21][22], measurements in these studies were primarily obtained through self-assessment and recall, and thus susceptible to bias [23,24].…”