Title

Exercise Facilitates Smoking Cessation Indirectly via Improvements In Smoking-Specific Self-Efficacy: Prospective Cohort Study Among a National Sample of Young Smokers

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Preventive Medicine

Publication Date

12-2015

School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to examine whether exercise is associated with 2-year follow-up smoking status through its influence on smoking-specific self-efficacy.

Methods

Longitudinal data from the 2003–2005 National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey were used, including 1,228 participants (16–24 years). A questionnaire was used to examine baseline exercise levels, baseline smoking-specific self-efficacy, follow-up smoking status, and the covariates.

Results

Baseline exercise was associated with baseline self-efficacy (β = 0.04, p < 0.001) after adjusting for age category, sex, race–ethnicity, education, and nicotine dependence. Baseline self-efficacy, in turn, was associated with 2-year smoking status (β = 0.23, p < 0.001) after adjustments. There was no adjusted direct effect of baseline exercise on 2-year smoking status (β = 0.001, p = 0.95); however, the adjusted indirect effect of baseline self-efficacy on the relationship between exercise and 2-year smoking status was significant (β = 0.008, bootstrapped lower and upper CI: 0.002–0.02; p < 0.05). The mediation ratio was 0.837, which indicates that smoking-specific self-efficacy mediates 84% of the total effect of exercise on smoking status.

Conclusions

Among daily smokers, exercise may help to facilitate smoking cessation via exercise-induced increases in smoking-specific self-efficacy.

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