Abstract
BackgroundThe effects of cigarette smoking on body weight remain inconclusive. This study evaluated this relationship using the latest data from China, the largest consumer market of tobacco in the world, which is also experiencing a steady increase in patients with obesity.MethodsUsing data obtained from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) 1991–2011, Logit Model and Two-Stage Residual Inclusion (2SRI) estimation were applied. Local tobacco yield was considered as instrument variable for smoking behavior and corrected for endogeneity.ResultsSmoking increased the likelihood of being underweight by 0.9 % and healthy weight by 5.3 %, while the likelihood of overweight and obesity decreased by 6.5 %, of which obesity reduced by 5.1 %. After correcting for endogeneity, the results were consistent and stronger. Cigarette smoking increased the likelihood of being underweight by 2.7 % and healthy weight by 12.7 %, while it decreased the likelihood of overweight and obesity by 13 %, of which obesity reduced by 10 %.ConclusionSmoking induced heterogeneous effects on body weight. Smoking had a positive effect on underweight and healthy weight, while a negative effect on overweight and obesity. Tobacco control interventions may lead to weight loss among healthy subjects, while the effects on obese subjects were not obvious as expected.
Highlights
The effects of cigarette smoking on body weight remain inconclusive
Some studies reported that smoking was associated with lower weights and body mass index (BMI), whereas some studies indicated a conflicting effect of significantly increased BMI [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
The average BMI was 22.85, which indicated that our study subjects were of healthy weight in general
Summary
The effects of cigarette smoking on body weight remain inconclusive. This study evaluated this relationship using the latest data from China, the largest consumer market of tobacco in the world, which is experiencing a steady increase in patients with obesity. Estimates from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) 1991–2011 indicated that the prevalence of overweight adults nearly doubled. There is a considerable interest in understanding the effects of smoking on body weight. Some studies reported that smoking was associated with lower weights and body mass index (BMI), whereas some studies indicated a conflicting effect of significantly increased BMI [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. A few disturbing results indicate no evidence for the claim that
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