Changes in Body Weight and Subcutaneous Fatness Related to Smoking Habits

Abstract

Body weights, skin fold thicknesses over the subscapular and triceps areas, and smoking histories were obtained on 501 male telephone workers aged 40 to 59 years and repeated five to six years later. There was a general tendency for weight and subcutaneous fat to increase over this period. Increases in weight and in subscapular fatness were most marked among persons who had stopped smoking cigarettes, but changes in fatness over the triceps area were unrelated to smoking patterns. Changes In body weight correlated belter with changes in subscapuîar skin fold thickness than with changes in skin fold thickness over the triceps area.