Exercise and Smoking: A Literature Overview

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to summarize the more recent research findings regarding the relationship between exercise and smoking behavior. Reviewed studies have been presented according to themes and research design types. Initially cross-sectional and longitudinal epidemiological studies have been reviewed in order to map findings regarding the correlations between those two behaviors. Moreover, studies exploring variables that function as mediators or moderators between smoking and exercise relationship have been included. Then studies examining the possible preventive effects of exercise on smoking behavior for adolescents are reviewed and implications for developing effective preventive intervention programs are provided. Finally, experimental studies examining the acute and long term effects of exercise on smokers are reviewed in order to conclude if exercise can act as a treatment for smokers to manage withdrawal symptoms and help them quit smoking. Overall, exercise seems to have a protective effect against smoking as well as a supportive effect on smoking cessation treatments. The investigation of the underlying mechanisms behind this relationship and the systematic synthesis of new knowledge on this topic can improve our understanding and inform the development of more effective health promotion programs.

Association of activity behaviours and patterns with cardiovascular risk factors in Swiss middle-aged adults: The CoLaus study

“…These findings are partly in agreement with Bakrania et al (2016) that demonstrated lower prevalence rates of smoking among the “Sedentary exercisers” but higher ones for the “Busy bees” and the “Light movers”; but these results were not adjusted for potential confounders. Overall, PA has been negatively associated with smoking Hassandra et al (2015) . The “Sedentary exercisers” and “Busy bees” were also negatively associated with obesity whereas no association was found for the “Light movers”, a finding in agreement with other studies ( Bakrania et al, 2016 ; Loprinzi et al, 2014 ; Cristi-Montero et al, 2017 ) but not with another one ( Sugiyama et al, 2008 ) showing also lower prevalence rates of obesity among the “Light movers”.…”

Wheel-running exercise before and during gestation against acute and sensitized cocaine psychomotor-activation in offspring

“…Panels B and D describe the time-course of the responsiveness over the six 5-min within-session intervals (no inferential statistics were computed on these data). The split-plot ANOVA resulted in a strong significant housing-by-drug interaction ( ²p = .15, F (1,32) = 5.75, p = .02) along with a negligible non-significant housing-by-drug-by-sex interaction ( ²p = .01, F (1,32) = 0.36, p = .55). Importantly, planned crossed contrasts indicated that the attenuating effect of prenatal exercise was significant and strong in females (d = 0.75, t (32) = 2.11 at p = .02), but modest and non-significant in males (d = 0.34, t (32) = 0.96 at p = .17).…”

Motivational Interviewing for Smoking Cessation and Increase of Physical Activity in Αdults

“…It was also found that exercisers can limit and stop smoking more easily than non-exercisers (Godin, 1989;Boudreaux, Francis, Taylor, Scarinci, & Brantley, 2003;Hassandra et al, 2015). Exercise is now recognized as a low cost factor of prevention and smoking cessation and can be used both for smoking prevention and for smoking cessation.…”

“…Several intervention programs based on psychological support, focused on certain factors, such as motivation, self-efficacy and social support relations, since they appear to affect the smoking cessation attempt (Johnston, Johnston, Pollard, Kinmonth, & Mant, 2004;Norman, Conner, & Bell, 1999;Hassandra, Goudas, & Theodorakis, 2015), and also because the need for emotional coverage appears to be a very important reason for smoking (Singleton & Pope, 2000).…”

“…However, preventive programs should focus on an overall healthy lifestyle, including exercise, rather than on smoking solely. Moreover, long-term interventions which employ exercise as a means of stop smoking should be coupled with respective counselling strategies (Hassandra et al, 2015).…”