Rates of cigarette smoking are decreasing because of public health initiatives, pharmacological aids, and clinician focus on smoking cessation. However, a sedentary lifestyle increases cardiovascular risk, and therefore, inactive smokers have a particularly enhanced risk of cardiovascular disease.
In this secondary analysis of mActive-Smoke, a 12-week observational study, we investigated adherence to guideline-recommended moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in smokers and its association with the urge to smoke.
We enrolled 60 active smokers (≥3 cigarettes per day) and recorded continuous step counts with the Fitbit Charge HR. MVPA was defined as a cadence of greater than or equal to 100 steps per minute. Participants were prompted to report instantaneous smoking urges via text message 3 times a day on a Likert scale from 1 to 9. We used a mixed effects linear model for repeated measures, controlling for demographics and baseline activity level, to investigate the association between MVPA and urge.
A total of 53 participants (mean age 40 [SD 12] years, 57% [30/53] women, 49% [26/53] nonwhite, and 38% [20/53] obese) recorded 6 to 12 weeks of data. Data from 3633 person-days were analyzed, with a mean of 69 days per participant. Among all participants, median daily MVPA was 6 min (IQR 2-13), which differed by sex (12 min [IQR 3-20] for men vs 3.5 min [IQR 1-9] for women; P=.004) and BMI (2.5 min [IQR 1-8.3] for obese vs 10 min [IQR 3-15] for nonobese; P=.04). The median total MVPA minutes per week was 80 (IQR 31-162). Only 10% (5/51; 95% CI 4% to 22%) of participants met national guidelines of 150 min per week of MVPA on at least 50% of weeks. Adjusted models showed no association between the number of MVPA minutes per day and mean daily smoking urge ( P=.72).