Abstract
Aims and background: There are several barriers to smoking cessation that are unique to women. Compared to men, women report lower levels of motivation to quit and greater perceived difficulty with cessation. However, recent studies might favour commitment by women to quit through higher risk perception related e.g. to the development of premature facial wrinkling or to the decrease of mammographic density due to cigarette smoking.
Methods: To evaluate the perception of breast change after cessation and its possible motivational effect on manteinance, we interviewed 25 premenopausal women who had quit ≥ 1 year before. We obtained information and discussed with them about change in breast size and turgor. The two groups of women with and without breast change were statistically compared. with the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test (continuous variables) and the Fisher test (categorical variables).
Results: Median age was 41 years (range: 30-49 years). Median CO before quitting was 18 ppm and PY was 22.5; both these parameters characterize a category of mild smokers. Sixteen women (64%) reported breast change at 6 months after smoking quitting. Such an outcome was paralleled by only moderate effects on weight or BMI increase after quitting: Notably, of the 16 women with breast change, only 3 (19%) with a normal baseline BMI showed a BMI increase to >25.
Conclusions: These results indicate that women in pre-menopausal status reported subjective perception of change in breast size after smoking cessation, which may not be totally explained by weight gain. Further studies are needed to understand the effect, if any, of such perception on motivation to quit smoking.
- © 2011 ERS