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medpundit |
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Sunday, April 27, 2003A survey of 273 girls found those who most wanted to be thin were also most likely to smoke. In contrast, those who were not worried about their weight were less likely to take up the habit. ...Of those who smoked, 93% felt it was important to be thin. This compared to just 7% of those who didn't smoke. However, few girls said they believed smoking helped to keep weight off. This led researchers to conclude that other factors, such as peer pressure, may also play a role in determining which girls were most likely to start smoking. Nevertheless, they suggested that changing girls' perceptions about being thin could help to stop others from taking up smoking. But how are we going to change that perception when we're constantly inundated with messages about how dangerous it is to be fat . Reading last week's media reports, you could easily get the impression that being fat is responsible for as much cancer as smoking - which it isn't. UPDATE: Comment from David at Cronaca: Doesn't this seem to you to be a classic instance of correlation being confused with causality? From the story, it sounds as if there *isn't* evidence for a direct causal link, and I'd guess that both the smoking and the desire to be thin are common byproducts of a strong desire to be accepted (peer pressure being part of this, but by no means all). That's true. However, on an anecdotal level, I have many women patients who tell me they don't want to quit smoking because they fear they'll gain weight. That's not the same as taking up smoking to lose weight, I know, but it suggests that weight control plays a role in the decision to smoke or not to smoke. I've even had patients who successfully quit only to take it up again because they were horrified by the ten or fifteen pound weight gain. On a personal level, sometimes the thought crosses my mind that my weight would be easier to control if I smoked. Usually it occurs to me after I've failed to exercise self-control. It would be so much easier to substitute one compulsion for another...... posted by Sydney on 4/27/2003 08:46:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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