UIC received a $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to investigate the impact of anti-smoking television advertising on youth, young adult and adult smoking behaviors.
Sherry Emery, principal investigator of the study and senior research specialist at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy said, "The grant will enable us to match 10 years of Nielsen Media Research data to population surveys that include information about smoking behavior. We will examine how exposure to a variety of ads, in different areas of the United States across time, is related to smoking and quitting behaviors."
UIC researchers will use multi-level statistical models to combine ad ratings data from Nielsen with data on individual-level smoking behavior and state-level tobacco control policies.
According to Emery, Nielsen data is a valuable tool used by television stations and advertising agencies to measure ad ratings, but they are often too expensive and not constructed for academic use. The UIC researchers believe the unique combination of data will fill in important gaps in smoking behavior research.
Data from the survey will include 110 major media markets during a 10-year span from 1999 through 2008. The study will examine the relationship between televised smoking-related ads and smoking beliefs and behaviors amongst youth (ages 12 to 17), young adults (18 to 24) and adults (25 and over).
According to UIC researchers, this study will be the first to examine the impact of various types of smoking-related advertising (state and nationally sponsored tobacco control, tobacco industry, and pharmaceutical cessation aids) and how they affect young adult and adult smoking behavior, smoking status, how much they smoke, and attempts to quit. Researchers will also examine the impact of recent reductions in state-sponsored anti-smoking media campaigns. In recent years, ads for drug cessation aids have increased and tobacco industry-sponsored ads have shifted focus by marketing to adults.
According to the American Cancer Society, about half of all Americans who continue to smoke will die because of the habit. Each year about 440,000 people in the United States die from illnesses related to cigarette smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined. Smokers are also at a higher risk for cancer, heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and strokes.
"The tobacco industry has switched their focus of marketing to youth to marketing to young adults because it's legal," said Emery. "We're very interested in learning about adult smoking behavior because after age 25 is when people start quitting, and a lot of these ads try to motivate people to quit smoking."
NIH is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.
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