Abstract 13531: Weight Gain after Smoking Cessation Doesn’t Matter

Background: Although smoking cessation reduces mortality, weight gain is concerned because it may weaken the benefit of quitting. All-cause mortality of quitters according to weight change after smoking cessation was compared to that of smokers. Methods: Among subjects who received annual health checkups from 1997 through 2013 in Moriguchi City, Osaka, Japan, 5,204 subjects were extracted who were smokers at the first time they received the checkup and had 3 consecutive annual checkups. Of those, smokers were defined who reported smoking at all 3 consecutive checkups. Quitters were defined who reported smoking at the first checkup but not smoking at the second and the third checkups of a 3 consecutive checkups. Smokers who reported not smoking and quitters who reported smoking at any checkups after the 3 consecutive checkups used for the definition were excluded. The oldest 3 consecutive checkups were used as clinical and follow-up data of smokers. The 3 consecutive checkups in which a subject met the criteria of quitters were used as clinical and follow-up data of quitters. Weight change was assessed between the first and the second checkups of the 3 consecutive checkups. According to weight change, quitters were divided into 3 groups; no weight gain (n=362), weight gain no more than 2 kg (n=458) and weight gain more than 2 kg (n=485). All-cause mortality of 3 groups was compared to smokers using multivariate proportional hazards regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. Results: There were 2803 smokers and 1,305 quitters. Mean age was 54±15 years with 65% of men. There were 449 deaths during 9.7±4.7 years (median 9.8 years) follow-up. Mean weight was 59.9±11.0 kg and mean number of checkups the subjects received was 8.0±4.3 times. Compared to smokers, quitters of no weight gain group (relative risk (RR)=0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.47-0.93, p=0.0164), weight gain no more than 2 kg group (RR=0.51, 95%CI=0.36-0.71, p<0.0001), and weight gain more than 2 kg group (RR=0.74, 95%CI=0.55-0.99, p=0.0426) had significantly lower mortality. Conclusions: Quitters had significantly lower mortality than smokers regardless of weight change after smoking cessation.