Date of Graduation

2007

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Women are at great risks for smoking-related health consequences. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. A relationship exists between smoking behavior and weight control in women. Women are more likely to smoke to control their weight and experience higher relapse and dropout rates in smoking cessation programs due to issues of weight concern. The most effective smoking cessation programs are those that contain a cognitive behavioral component that addresses issues of weight concern in conjunction with the standard smoking cessation treatment. However, women are still experiencing high relapse and dropout rates during cessation treatment. The current study examined how weight-control female smokers view the weight control properties and the negative health effects of smoking compared to non-weight control smokers. This study surveyed 100 female smokers, who were undergraduate students at West Virginia University. A final sample of 75 participants was included in the study. Data analyses revealed statistically significant differences between weight control and non-weight control female smokers in regards to the awareness of personal negative health consequences of smoking, the willingness to accept the risk of infertility as related to cigarette smoking, and the estimation of weight gain from quitting smoking. In addition, results also indicated that a female college age smoking population in general is willing to accept a significantly lower number of lost years of life from cigarette smoking than the true statistic of five years. Clinical implications and limitations are discussed as well as suggestions for future research.

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