Fear of Extra Pounds Makes It Harder for Women to Quit Smoking
Women have a harder time quitting smoking than men do, in part because of concerns that they will gain weight if they stop.
Some anti-smoking programs have included dieting advice in hopes of increasing the rate of quitting, but with little success. A new study suggests that better results can be obtained by counseling to alleviate women’s fears about increased weight.
Drs. Kenneth A. Perkins and Marsha Marcus of the University of Pittsburgh enrolled 219 female smokers who wanted to quit smoking but were worried about gaining weight. They randomly assigned the women to one of three smoking cessation groups: one group received standard anti-smoking therapy in which weight gain was not explicitly discussed, one received standard therapy plus diet advice about how to prevent weight gain and one received standard therapy plus counseling to reduce their concern about gaining weight. Dieting was discouraged in the latter group.
The team reported in the August Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (https://www.apa.org/journals/ccp.html) that, one year later, 21% of the women who had received counseling to allay their concerns about weight gain were still not smoking, compared to only 13% of the group who got diet advice and 9% of the standard therapy group.
All three groups did gain weight. But women in the weight-counseling group gained an average of only about 5.5 pounds, while those in the diet-advice group gained an average of 11.9 pounds and those in the standard therapy group gained 16.9 pounds.
Weight Plays Role in Age of Heart Attack Victims
The heavier you are, the earlier the age at which you are likely to have a heart attack, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Scott Wright and his colleagues reported in the August issue of Clinical Cardiology that overweight heart attack patients who visited the Mayo emergency room were an average of 3.6 years younger than heart attack victims of normal weight. Those who were obese were an average of 8.2 years younger.
“This study shows that even when other risk factors are taken into account, obesity is directly linked with early heart attack,” Wright said.
Pregnancy Problems Found to Cut Cancer Risk
Three abnormalities of pregnancy--a smaller placenta, an increase in blood pressure between the second and third trimesters and a serious condition known as maternal floor infarction of the placenta--are associated with substantial reductions in the mother’s subsequent risk for breast cancer, according to researchers from the Public Health Institute in Berkeley. Physicians do not yet know how the abnormalities lower risk, but researchers believe that explaining it may lead to new ways to prevent breast cancer.
Dr. Barbara Cohn and her colleagues studied 3,804 Caucasian women from the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan in the San Francisco East Bay area who were pregnant between June 1959 and April 1967.
They reported in the Aug. 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that women with the highest increase in blood pressure had a 51% reduction in breast cancer risk. Maternal floor infarction, which can block the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the fetus, was associated with a 60% decrease in risk. In combination, all three placental risk factors were associated with a reduction in breast cancer rate of as much as 94%. The authors noted that reduction in risk is the largest ever reported for breast cancer.
Vaccinations May Be Affected by Autism Fears
Vaccination rates for children dropped slightly in 2000, possibly as a result of the misguided belief that vaccinations are a cause of autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2000, 77.6% of toddlers had received the recommended doses of vaccines against seven illnesses--polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella. In the preceding year, 79.9% of toddlers had received the shots, the agency reported in its Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report.
North Carolina had the highest vaccination rate, at 87.6%, while Texas had the lowest at 69.5%. California’s rate was 77.3%
Depression During Pregnancy Studied
Postpartum depression is common in women who have just given birth, but new results suggest that depression is at least as common during the pregnancy itself.
Dr. Jonathan Evans of the University of Bristol and his colleagues studied 13,799 women in Avon, England, who gave birth between April 1991 and December 1992.
The women were enrolled in the Avon longitudinal study of women and children (https://www.ich.bris.ac.uk/alspacext) and completed questionnaires designed to assess depression at 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy and at eight weeks and eight months after birth.
The team reported in the Aug. 4 British Medical Journal that symptoms of depression were highest at the 32nd week of pregnancy. They also found that depression was more common during pregnancy than it was after birth.
Because mental conditions can affect the environment within the womb, new studies should look for ways to minimize depression during pregnancy, say British researchers.
Carpenter Survives Nail-Gun Accident
A 58-year-old Texas carpenter was building a house when a co-worker accidentally shot him with a nail gun. Although the galvanized nail completely penetrated his skull, it encountered only soft tissue and produced no permanent damage, Dr. Wayne X. Shandera and Dr. Anne Hayman of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston reported in the Aug. 2 New England Journal of Medicine (https://www.nejm.org).
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Medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II can be reached at thomas.maugh@latimes.com.
