At last a study shows that anti-smoking advertisements in media can reduce cigarette smoking among the teenagers.
Researcher Sherry Emery examined the association between exposure to state anti-tobacco advertising and youth smoking-related beliefs and behaviors. They surveyed data from school-based samples of 51,085 students from 48 states. And used targeted ratings point (TRPs) to assess the ratings of an advertisement among U.S. teen audiences. If an ad with 80 TRPs per month, it was estimated to have been seen an average of one time by 80 percent of this age group.Students in states with a TRP of ‘one or higher’ were found to have less likely cjhances of having smoked in the past 30 days (18.6 percent) compared with those in markets with no exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements (26.7 percent).
"Our analyses suggest that state-sponsored anti-tobacco media campaigns were associated with more favorable antismoking attitudes and beliefs among youth and reduced youth smoking. The strong associations between antismoking attitudes and beliefs, as well as reduced smoking, among students with a state TRP measure of at least one suggest that it is important to maintain a minimal mean exposure level of at least one cumulative state-sponsored anti-tobacco ad per four-month period for the general teen viewing audience," the authors concluded.
The study published in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
