Positive correlation between post-cessation weight concerns and intentions to quit smoking in Chinese male smokers: A cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Concerns about post-cessation weight gain might influence the attempts to quit smoking. The knowledge about post-cessation weight gain, the post-cessation weight concerns, and their relationship to smoking quit intention have not been thoroughly studied in the Chinese population.

Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study, which included a convenience sample of 1037 male smokers intending to quit smoking from Chongqing, China. Questionnaire-based investigations were conducted to assess sociodemographic characteristics, post-cessation weight concerns, and the intention to quit smoking. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between post-cessation weight concerns and intentions to quit smoking.

Results: The perception levels of post-cessation weight gain were low in the study population, and only 36.07% of respondents knew that 'smoking cessation will affect the weight of smokers'. Generally, the medium post-cessation weight concern score was 2.16 on a 10-point scale, and only 8.29% of the participants had scores >5. Participants with a higher degree of concern regarding post-cessation weight gain had a higher adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for intentions to quit smoking (AOR=1.47; 95% CI: 1.09-1.97) compared to participants with lower weight concerns in the fully adjusted regression model.

Conclusions: The extent of post-cessation weight concerns was low, partially due to the low perception of weight gain associated with smoking cessation. Moreover, the intentions to quit smoking were positively associated with post-cessation weight concerns. Consequently, it appears that weight concerns have not been a significant deterrent to the intention to quit smoking among the study population.