Weight concerns, postexperimental smoking, and perceived difficulty in quitting in Argentinean adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the relationship among weight concerns, smoking, and perceived difficulty in quitting among Argentinean adolescents.


METHODS
Logistic regression and profile analyses, stratified by sex, were used to estimate the associations among 8th and 11th grade students (n=2524).


RESULTS
Weight concerns were associated with current smoking status and also with perceived quitting difficulty among female, but not male, Argentinean high school students. Profile analyses determined parallel profiles of weight concerns between female smokers and nonsmokers and between male smokers and nonsmokers.


CONCLUSIONS
The presence of weight concerns among adolescent females may require special consideration in smoking prevention and cessation programs.
Department of Mental Hygiene, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. vforman@jhsph.edu
Valerie L
VL
Forman
Paola
P
Morello