Influence of pro-smoking media messages lasts 7 days, study finds

Exposure to a single pro-smoking media message increases college-aged students' risk of using tobacco for seven days, providing new clues about the influence of media on smoking, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The novel project is the first to attempt to quantify the persistence that cigarette advertising and other pro-smoking media messages have on consumers. The study is published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Researchers say the findings have important implications for policies that limit tobacco advertising and other efforts aimed at curbing youth tobacco use.

"We were surprised how long the influence of pro-smoking messages lasted," said Steven Martino, a study co-author and a psychologist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "The results suggest that positive media messages about smoking are likely to influence behavior even if opportunities to smoke occur infrequently."

The study involved 134 college students in Pittsburgh aged 18 to 24 who were given hand-held devices that allowed them to document their exposure to pro-smoking media messages during their normal routine over a three-week period. Participants included both nonsmokers and those who smoke either regularly or occasionally.

After viewing a pro-smoking advertisement or message, participants reported their smoking intentions and ability to refuse tobacco by answering a series of questions such as, "Do you think you will try a cigarette anytime soon?" The hand-held devices also prompted participants to answer these questions at other times during the day when they were not exposed to pro-smoking messages.

This study design allowed the researchers to see how long the effects of exposure to a pro-smoking message could be detected in participants' responses to the survey questions.

Researchers found that after exposure to a single pro-smoking media message, smoking intentions immediately increased by an average of 22 percent. Although smoking intentions decreased with each passing day, they remained elevated for a full 7 days.

While the study focused on the effects of single pro-smoking media messages, all of the study participants reported being exposed to multiple pro-smoking media messages during the three-week data collection period. In total, participants reported 1,112 exposures to pro-smoking media messages during the study.

Pro-smoking apps contravene WHO ban

AUSTRALIAN researchers say pro-smoking messages being promoted through popular smartphone apps violate a World Health Organization (WHO) ban on tobacco advertising in all media.

Sydney University researchers found 107 pro-smoking apps, 65 from the Apple App Store and 42 from Android Market.

Apps considered ‘pro-smoking’ had content which explicitly provided information about brands of tobacco, where to buy tobacco products or images of tobacco brands or cigarettes.