Research has shown that teenagers who were exposed to cigarette advertisements had a higher tendency to smoke when they grew up. (Image : Johnny & Aggy / Flickr)
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – Research has shown that teenagers who were exposed to cigarette advertisements had a higher tendency to smoke when they grew up.
Professor Shin Sung-re from the Department of Nursing Science at SamYook University published the results of his research on the cause-and-effect relationship between teens having experience watching cigarette ads and smoking when they become adults, in the third issue of the ‘Antismoking Policies Forum’.
Professor Shin conducted a survey on 995 teenagers from various schools and ages in the Seoul and Chungnam areas, and analyzed the responses.
The students that had experience in smoking at least one cigarette during the past three months were classified as the ‘current smoking group’. Teenagers were then divided into three groups, the ‘never smoking’ group, the ‘undecided’ group and the ‘willing to smoke’ group, according to their intentions of smoking when they are adults.
The results show that the possibility of a teenager smoking in the future showed a six percent increase when a unit of ‘exposure to cigarette ads’ rose, and a 25 percent increase when the unit of ‘smoking acceptance’ went up. Also, the chances of the ‘never smoking’ group becoming the ‘undecided’ group showed a 10 percent increase as the group was exposed to more cigarette ads. The probability of those in the ‘never smoking’ group joining the ‘willing to smoke’ group grew 1.15 times when ‘smoking acceptance’ increased.
The research concludes that teenagers who are exposed to cigarette advertisements more frequently tend to belong in the ‘undecided’ group, and have a greater possibility to smoke as adults when they are exposed to smoking itself.
Professor Shin states that regulation of smoking advertisements should be set to lower the chance of teenagers growing up as smokers. “The research shows that teenagers are vulnerable to smoking when exposed to advertisements and smoking in the media. Measures should be taken to regulate cigarette ads, as the starting age of teenage smokers is continuing to drop.”
By, M.H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
