Does Moderate Intensity Exercise Help Prevent Smoking Relapse Among Women?

This study compares the effects of a standard smoking cessation treatment, including one-time brief counseling and provision of nicotine patch plus an 8-week moderate intensity exercise program versus the same standard smoking cessation treatment plus equivalent contact control among 60 healthy women. A number of techniques will be used to increase compliance with the treatment program, thus more effectively isolating the effects of exercise. These include: (1) a two-week run-in period prior to randomization; (2) use of behavioral contracting prior to participant randomization; and (3) performance of all exercise on-site. Smoking cessation outcomes (continuous abstinence and point prevalence abstinence) will be verified by carbon monoxide and saliva cotinine. Physical activity will be evaluated by attendance at the supervised sessions. We hypothesize that participants in the smoking cessation plus moderate intensity exercise condition will be more likely to quit smoking than participants in the smoking cessation treament plus contact control condition.