Study Shows Television
Ads Drive Down Youth Smoking

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Preliminary results from an American Legacy Foundation study show the anti-smoking group's "truth" campaign is helping to lower smoking rates among US youth, the foundation said on Wednesday.

According to the group, smoking prevalence among high school students who have had "high exposure" to the campaign's television commercials has declined 29% since 2000.

"The more students were exposed to the truth campaign, the less they smoked," said American Legacy Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Cheryl Healton.

Smoking rates among high school students with medium exposure to the truth commercials fell 21%, while those with low exposure to the ads showed a 12% decline in smoking rates, American Legacy said.

While the study only measured students' exposure to the television commercials, the foundation's campaign also includes radio commercials, magazine ads and a Web site.

American Legacy, a Washington, DC-based public health foundation, was created due to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between 46 state attorneys general and the major US cigarette companies.

The data released by American Legacy are part of the National Youth Tobacco Survey 2002, conducted this past spring by the foundation in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The results are from 69 schools in the 2000 National Youth Tobacco Survey that were surveyed again this year to examine the impact of the campaign over the two-year period. The first television commercials in the campaign aired in February 2000.

The survey for those 69 schools showed an overall 17.9% drop in "current smoking" rates among high school students, from 29% in 2000 to 23.8% in 2002. American Legacy defines current smoking as smoking one or more days in the past 30 days.

Among middle school students, there was an overall 5.4% drop in smoking rates to 10.6%, the foundation said.

The decline in smoking prevalence among high school girls was wider than the decline among high school boys. But middle school girls showed a slight increase in smoking while middle school boys showed a decline, the foundation said.

The data include responses from 9,661 high school students and 6,853 middle school students. The 69 schools, chosen at random, are in 27 US states, American Legacy said.

Reference Source 89

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