First National Study to Demonstrate Influence Hollywood Has on Young Smokers
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- A study released today in the journal
Pediatrics shows a direct link between viewing smoking in feature films
(movies) and adolescents who then choose to start smoking. Conducted by Dr.
James Sargent at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New
Hampshire, and funded by the National Cancer Institute, the study, Exposure to
Movie Smoking: Its Relation to Smoking Initiation Among U.S. Adolescents, is
the first national study to indicate that young people have a higher risk of
lighting up as their exposure to movie smoking increases. Sargent also works
in cooperation with the American Legacy Foundation(R), a national public
health foundation devoted to keeping young people from smoking and helping
adult smokers quit. The foundation and Dr. Sargent's team at Dartmouth will
collaborate on research that monitors the amount and context of smoking in
movies.
According to the study, more than one-third of U.S. adolescents between
10-14 years old who smoke start smoking as a direct result of exposure to
movie smoking. Youth participating in the study were assigned to one of four
groups based on the amount of movie smoking to which they were exposed. The
findings indicated no distinguishing factor of race or geographical location
in regards to youth starting smoking as a result of viewing smoking in the
movies and found that as the amount of exposure to smoking in movies
increased, the rate of smoking also increased.
"Dr. Sargent has once again provided scientific evidence about the impact
of popular culture on the smoking habits of our youth, and all of us --
especially parents -- must play a role in monitoring what our children see on
the big screen," said foundation President and CEO Cheryl Healton, Dr. PH.
"We might already consider how language, violence or sexual content in movies
affects children, but we must also think about how seeing smoking influences
them, since it directly impacts their health in such a negative way."
The findings from this study identify a need for public health campaigns
that are designed to reduce youth smoking. The authors of the study provide
the following recommendations for helping reverse this trend:
* Persuade the movie industry to voluntarily reduce depictions of smoking
and cigarette brands.
* Work with the movie industry to incorporate smoking into the ratings
system, alerting parents to the risks a movie with smoking poses to
the adolescent viewer.
* Provide motivation for parents to restrict movie exposure during their
child's early adolescent years.
"The scientific community has now replicated this finding in several
samples of youth, increasing our certainty about the relationship between
seeing smoking in the movies and adolescent smoking," Sargent said. "It is
time for the public health community to increase awareness about this issue
among parents and within the movie industry so that we can do more to
counteract this adverse influence on the health of our nation's children."
Exposure to Movie Smoking: Its Relation to Smoking Initiation Among U.S.
Adolescents included a sample of 6,522 youth, contacted between June and
October 2003 through a random-digit dial telephone survey, and was weighted to
match the U.S. population of 10-14 year olds. The survey concentrated on the
participants' exposure to the top 100 U.S. box office hits per year from 1998-
-2002 (five years preceding the survey) and 32 movies that earned at least $15
million in gross revenues during the first four months of 2003.
The American Legacy Foundation has collaborated with researchers at
Dartmouth, Smoke Free Movies at the University of California, San Francisco's
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education and the Avalon Theater in
Washington, D.C. in past years to help bring attention to the issue of smoking
in the movies and the importance of protecting America's children from tobacco
advertising and images in feature films.
The American Legacy Foundation(R) is dedicated to building a world where
young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C.,
the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco
use through grants, technical assistance and training, youth activism,
strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns,
research, public relations, and outreach to populations disproportionately
affected by the toll of tobacco. The foundation's national programs include
Circle of Friends(R), Great Start(R), a Priority Populations Initiative,
Streetheory(R) and truth(R). The American Legacy Foundation was created as a
result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between
attorneys general from 46 states, five US territories and the tobacco
industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org.
SOURCE American Legacy Foundation
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Related links:
http://www.americanlegacy.org
CONTACT:
Julia Cartwright of American Legacy
Foundation, +1-202-454-5596
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