Exposure of Secondary School Adolescents from Argentina and Mexico to Smoking Scenes in Movies: a Population-based Estimation

pp. 145-151

Abstract

Background: Smoking scenes in movies promote adolescent smoking onset; thus, the analysis of the number of images of smoking in movies really reaching adolescents has become a subject of increasing interest.

Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate the level of exposure to images of smoking in movies watched by adolescents in Argentina and Mexico.

Methods: First-year secondary school students from Argentina and Mexico were surveyed. One hundred highest-grossing films from each year of the period 2009-2013 (Argentina) and 2010-2014 (Mexico) were analyzed. Each participant was assigned a random sample of 50 of these movies and was asked if he/she had watched them. The total number of adolescents who had watched each movie in each country was estimated and was multiplied by the number of smoking scenes (occurrences) in each movie to obtain the number of gross smoking impressions seen by secondary school adolescents from each country.

Results: Four-hundred and twenty-two movies were analyzed in Argentina and 433 in Mexico. Exposure to more than 500 million smoking impressions was estimated for adolescents in each country, averaging 128 and 121 minutes of smoking scenes seen by each Argentine and Mexican adolescent, respectively. Although 15, 16 and 18-rated movies had more smoking scenes in average, movies rated for younger teenagers were responsible for the highest number of smoking scenes watched by the students (67.3% in Argentina and 54.4% in Mexico) due to their larger audience.

Conclusion: At the population level, movies aimed at children are responsible for the highest tobacco burden seen by adolescents.