1. Effect of viewing smoking in movies on
adolescent smoking initiation: a cohort
study
Dalton, Madeline A;Sargent, James D;Beach, Michael L;Titus-Ernstoff, Linda;et al The
Lancet; Jul 26, 2003; 362, 9380; ProQuest Central p. 281
Jessica Foster
HLTH 350-001
2. Summary
• Studies have shown that tobacco marketing with and increase in smoking
among adolescents.
• Movies, and commercial advertisement can have an affect on the teenage
population because smoking is made attractive.
• Studies suggest exposure to smoking in movies has been linked to smoking
in adolescents.
3. Methods.
• When this study was conducted they did a written survey at first.
• These students where 10 to 14 years of age.
• They also preformed a baseline survey with 3547 students who have never
smoked.
They did a follow up 13-26 months later.
The follow up consisted of computer based phone interview system to keep things
confidential.
They also used a PC telecom system so when a student keyed in answer the data
was automatically recorded.
4. Procedures.
• Some questions that were asked during follow ups were “How many
cigarettes have you smoked in your life time?”
• Afterwards they asked students to pick movies from a list of 50, and each 50
movies where random.
• 45% of the movies seen where rated R
• 31% of the movies seen where PG-13
• 20% of the movies seen where PG
• 4% of the movies seen where G
They calculated exposure of movie smoking based on every film an individual
has seen.
5. Results.
• On average of the 50 movies showed students said that they saw at least 16
of them.
• During the follow up period 10% (259) of students actually smoked. Some
had a few puffs, others actually had more than 100 cigarettes.
• Only 5 people ( 0-2%) where not exposed to movies that had smoking in it.
6. Discussion
• Teenagers that attended movies with smoking are three times more likely to
start smoking.
• They also did the same study in New England, which had the same links
and was consistent with this study as well.
• Parents even have influence on the results because children with non-
smoking parents have a higher risk when seeing movies that advocate
smoking
• Adolescents’ parents who smoke are already at risk and the movies do not
influence them as much.
• One of the things they couldn’t control was long term exposure because the
interviews and calls where brief.
