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Physical activity for smoking cessation during pregnancy
Michael Ussher, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, St George’s University
of London, UK
Abstract
Smoking cessation counselling can help pregnant smokers to stop but success rates are low. Pharmaceutical aids to cessation have not been adequately tested for pregnancy and, due to the risk of harming the fetus many women are reluctant to use such aids. Recent evidence suggests that for non-pregnant women a physical intervention can enhance quit rates. Physical activity is likely to be attractive to pregnant smokers because exercise is popular during pregnancy and is regarded as a useful part of antenatal preparation. The LEAP (London Exercise And Pregnant smokers) trial involves 1,100 pregnant women attending 6 weekly sessions of smoking cessation counselling. In addition, the women will be randomly assigned to receive either
(i) a physical activity intervention combining supervised exercise (e.g. treadmill walking) and physical activity counseling (treatment group) or
(ii) an antenatal health education programme (control). The main outcome measure will be self-reported continuous smoking abstinence from the quit date to the end of pregnancy (verified by expired air carbon monoxide and cotinine) for the treatment group versus the control. Continuous abstinence will be assessed up to six months post-partum. This presentation will describe the protocol for the trial including the recruitment strategy.
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About the presenter
Dr Michael Ussher has been conducting research in smoking cessation for ten years. He is the author of the Cochrane review of Exercise interventions for smoking cessation.
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