Research

Tobacco companies find loophole in settlement stance on outdoor ads
Researchers say that tobacco companies have found subtle ways to advertise near places where children congregate despite the fact they are legally bound by the Master Settlement Agreement not to target children with their advertisements. For one year, researchers monitored outdoor advertisements in Los Angeles County and pre-Katrina New Orleans. They found that 20-25% of tobacco advertisements were located within 500 feet of a school, playground, or church. Companies preferred to use smaller posters, banners, or fliers, often posted multiple times in the same area versus using large billboards. In Los Angeles, alcohol and tobacco billboards were 40% more common in low-income areas. In Louisiana, use of the smaller media near schools, playgrounds, and churches was slightly more common than in other areas. For more information, click here. Click here to read the abstract of the research, which appears in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Adolescents' responses to anti-tobacco advertising: Exploring the role of adolescents' smoking status and advertisement theme
A recent study investigated how teens respond to different types of anti-smoking messages. Researchers examined smoking and nonsmoking teens’ reactions to anti-tobacco themes of endangering others’ health, negative life circumstances resulting from smoking, and tobacco industry manipulation. Adolescents who saw anti-tobacco advertisements depicting negative life circumstances reported lower intentions to smoke than those who saw advertisements with the other themes. This indicates that ads depicting negative life circumstances could be the most effective in lowering teens’ intentions to smoke. The findings suggest that teens’ reactions to anti-smoking messages differ based on smoking status. Compared to their nonsmoking peers, smokers reported fewer positive responses and more negative thoughts after exposure to the advertisements. Click here to view the abstract of this article, which was published in the July/August Journal of Health Communication.

Media-literate teens may be less likely to smoke cigarettes
Pitt School of Medicine study finds previous research has shown that media messages play a role in smoking initiation. Since most smokers start smoking before the age of 18, a recent study evaluated how adolescents’ media literacy relates to their smoking habits. Researchers found that teens with better abilities to understand, analyze, and evaluate media messages are less likely to smoke. In particular, teens who understand the contrast between the positive media portrayals of smoking and the actual negative health effects of smoking are less likely to become smokers. Click here for more information about this study, which appears in the American Journal of Health Behavior.

Home smoking bans prevent teens from lighting up
Teens who grow up in households where smoking is prohibited are less likely to try smoking. According to interviews with 2217 adolescents aged 12-17, those living in households permitting smoking were more likely to find smoking socially acceptable. Among nonsmoking households, teens in homes where there are no household rules against smoking were twice as likely to experiment with cigarettes compared to teens in homes where smoking is prohibited. These results show that when parents set rules against smoking at home, they send a strong message to their children that smoking is not acceptable. Click here to read more about this study, which will be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

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Reports

WVU anti-tobacco program earns government kudos
Not On Tobacco (N-O-T), a tobacco cessation program developed at West Virginia University, has recently been added to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, a list of recommended health interventions. The school-based program has helped thousands of teens quit smoking by teaching stress management and stimulus control in 10 weeks of small-group sessions facilitated by a trained adult. N-O-T has been used nationwide by the American Lung Association and internationally by the U.S. military. Click here to learn more about N-O-T, or click here to access the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

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International

Choking on the facts (China)
China’s Ministry of Health recently issued the 2008 China Tobacco Control Report. According to the report, 32.4% of young people between ages 13 and 18 have experimented with smoking, and 11.5% are current smokers. Smoking and smoking experimentation are considerably more common among boys than girls. Statistics show that more young children are experimenting with cigarettes; from 1998 to 2005, the amount of youths who had smoked an entire cigarette before the age of 13 increased 15%. The report describes contributing factors to rising youth smoking rates, including exposure to tobacco advertisements, depictions of tobacco products on television and in movies, and easy access to cigarettes. Click here for more information.

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