Weight gain as a barrier to smoking cessation among military personnel.

PURPOSE: To assess the relationships between active-duty military status, military weight standards, concern about weight gain, and anticipated relapse after smoking cessation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Hospital-based tobacco cessation program. SUBJECTS: Two hundred fifty-two enrollees, of 253 eligible, to a tobacco cessation program in 1999 (135 men, 117 women; 43% on active duty in the military). MEASURES: Independent variables included gender, body mass index (weight/height2), and military status. Dependent variables included about weight gain with smoking cessation and anticipated relapse. RESULTS: In multivariate regression analyses that controlled for gender and body mass index, active-duty military status was associated with an elevated level of concern about weight gain (1.9-point increase on a 10-point scale; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0- to 2.8-point increase), as well as higher anticipated relapse (odds ratio [OR] = 3.6; 95% CI, 1.3 to 9.8). Among subjects who were close to or over the U.S. Air Force maximum allowable weight for height, the analogous OR for active-duty military status was 6.9 (p = .02). CONCLUSIONS: Occupational weight standards or expectations may pose additional barriers for individuals contemplating or attempting smoking cessation, as they do among active-duty military personnel. These barriers are likely to hinder efforts to decrease smoking prevalence in certain groups.

The Effects of the Safe-sun Program on Patrons' and Lifeguards' Skin Cancer Risk-reduction Behaviors at Swimming Pools.

The 'Safe Sun' program had the goal of increasing patrons' and lifeguards' skin-protective behaviors and involved informational, prompting, feedback and goal-setting and incentive components coupled with pool lifeguards modeling protective behaviors such as wearing shirts, hats and sunglasses or staying in shaded areas. During two phases of a project involving 27 pools, it was found that while the program increased patrons' and lifeguards' protective behaviors, the largest changes were found at one pool where lifeguards were required to participate in the program. Patrons' protective behaviors at this pool increased from 30.7 percent to 52 percent, and lifeguards' protective behaviors increased from 40.8 percent to 95.7 percent. Social marketing, environmental change and institutionalization processes are needed to make skin-cancer prevention programs more effective.