Most U.S. youth exposed to tobacco advertising in stores

ATLANTA, July 31 (UPI) — U.S. researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say a lot of kids continue to see tobacco ads and be influenced by them.
Dr. Shanta Dube, lead health scientist for surveillance in the Epidemiology Branch, Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues examined the proportion of adolescents exposed to pro-tobacco advertising and assessed the association between this exposure and susceptibility to smoking.
The researchers used data from the 2011 National Youth Tobacco Survey to calculate the proportion of susceptible middle-school and high-school students exposed to pro-tobacco advertisements via stores, magazines and the Internet. Susceptibility to smoking cigarettes was defined as “never smoked but open to trying cigarettes,” Dube said.
In 2011, 81.5 percent of middle-school students and 87 percent of high-school students were exposed to tobacco advertisements in stores; 48 percent of middle-school students and 54 percent of high-school students were exposed to such advertising in magazines.
Exposure to tobacco advertisements on the Internet was similar at about 40 percent for both middle-school and high-school students.
Of those surveyed, 22 percent of middle-school students and 24 percent of high-school students were susceptible to trying cigarettes.
Exposure to magazine advertising declined from 71.8 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2009 among susceptible middle-school students; but exposure increased to 55 percent in 2011. Tobacco advertising seen through the Internet among susceptible high-school students increased from 26 percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2011.
The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/07/31/Most-US-youth-exposed-to-tobacco-advertising-in-stores/UPI-26521375321062/#ixzz2ajGPXhMN