Physical Activity and Quit Motivation Moderators of Adolescent Smoking Reduction

Objectives—We examined participant characteristics as moderators of adolescents’ smoking cessation outcomes as a function of intervention: Not-on-Tobacco (N-O-T), N-O-T with a physical activity (PA) module (N-O-T+FIT), or Brief Intervention (BI). Methods—We randomly assigned youth (N = 232) recruited from public high schools to an intervention, and measured their baseline levels of PA and motivation to quit. The number of cigarettes/day for weekdays and weekends was obtained at baseline and 3-month follow-up. Results—Across time-points, cigarette use declined for youth in N-O-T (p = .007) and N-O-T +FIT (ps \u3c .02), but not BI (n.s.). For N-O-T+FIT youth, the steepest declines in weekday smoking occurred for those with high PA levels (p = .02). Weekend cigarette use decreased for NO-T+FIT youth with moderate-high levels of intrinsic motivation to quit (ps \u3c .04). Conclusions—Adolescents may benefit from interventions designed to address the barriers faced during a quit attempt, including their motivation to make a change and their engagement in other healthy behaviors such as physical activity