ORIGINAL ARTICLE Exercise Counseling to Enhance Smoking Cessation Outcomes: The Fit2Quit Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Regular exercise has been proposed as a poten-tial smoking cessation aid. Purpose This study aimed to determine the effects of an exercise counseling program on cigarette smoking abstinence at 24 weeks. Methods A parallel, two-arm, randomized controlled trial was conducted. Adult cigarette smokers (n=906) who were insufficiently active and interested in quitting were random-ized to receive the Fit2Quit intervention (10 exercise tele-phone counseling sessions over 6 months) plus usual care (behavioral counseling and nicotine replacement therapy) or usual care alone. Results There were no significant group differences in 7-day point-prevalence and continuous abstinence at 6 months. The more intervention calls successfully delivered, the lower the probability of smoking (OR, 0.88; 95 % CI 0.81–0.97, p=0.01) in the intervention group. A significant difference was observed for leisure time physical activity (difference=219.11 MET-minutes/week; 95 % CI 52.65–385.58; p=0.01). Conclusions Telephone-delivered exercise counseling may not be sufficient to improve smoking abstinence rates over and above existing smoking cessation services. (Australasia