Body composition changes in hispanics after smoking cessation

Hispanic smokers (108) were randomly assigned to receive nicotine or placebo patch for 10 weeks, and followed for 16 weeks after treatment. The following outcome variables were evaluated: percent total body fat (%TBF), waist and mid-upper arm circumferences, conicity index (C-index), and subscapular to tricep ratio (STR). Age, smoking status, treatment, baseline weight , and pre-quit smoking characteristics were entered as covariates in a mixed effects regression model. We found that Hispanic smokers who successfully quit smoking compared with non-quitters experienced significant increases in %TBF (p=0.02), mid-upper arm (p=0.01) and waist (p=0.005) circumferences at 26 weeks. Results of the multivariate mixed effects analyses indicated that nicotine treatment had a greater association with change in %TBF (p=0.093) for females, but not for males (p=0.986). For males, the number of years smoking (p=0.013) and a previously attempt to quit smoking >24 hours (p=0.004) were significantly associated with change in %TBF. We found that changes in body weight tended to be negatively correlated with changes in the STR for males (r = -.19) and females (r = -.16). Our findings suggest that although body weight increases with smoking cessation, central body fat does not increase. This may attenuate the potential effect on risk for diabetes and other chronic diseases that are associated with weight gain.