Exercise helps pregnant women quit smoking

New research from the United Kingdom has found that exercise is effective in helping pregnant women quit smoking.

The researchers from the University of London conducted two studies involving 32 pregnant women who smoked regularly.

The pregnant smokers volunteered for an intervention combining smoking cessation support, physical activity, counselling and supervised exercise (e.g. treadmill walking).

The first study provided six weekly treatment sessions and the second study provided 15 sessions over eight weeks and physical activity levels and continuous smoking abstinence were monitored up to eight months gestation.

The women were also encouraged to do additional exercise on their own and were given advice and counselling on how to stop smoking and become more active.

Despite warnings over the damage to their own health and to that of their unborn children, some women continue to smoke during pregnancy and as drugs which help people to stop smoking have not been adequately tested in pregnancy, women are reluctant to use them - behavioural support alone has been found to have a modest effect.

Research has found that even moderate intensity physical activity such as brisk walk, reduces the urge to smoke.

The two pilot studies assessed the feasibility of recruiting pregnant women to a trial of physical activity for smoking cessation, their adherence to physical activity and their perceptions of the intervention.

The researchers found that exercising helped a quarter of smokers to quit and by eight months into the pregnancy 25% of the women achieved continuous smoking abstinence and 75% achieved the target level of 110 minutes/week of physical activity.

Increased physical activity was maintained at eight months gestation only in the second study and the women reported that the intervention helped weight management, reduced cigarette cravings and increased confidence for quitting.

The researchers say a large randomised controlled trial is now needed to examine the efficacy of this intervention.