Evidence of a dose-response relationship between "truth" antismoking ads and youth smoking prevalence.
OBJECTIVE
In early 2000, the American Legacy Foundation launched the national "truth" campaign, the first national antismoking campaign to discourage tobacco use among youths. We studied the impact of the campaign on national smoking rates among US youths (students in grades 8, 10, and 12).


METHODS
We used data from the Monitoring the Future survey in a pre/post quasi-experimental design to relate trends in youth smoking prevalence to varied doses of the "truth" campaign in a national sample of approximately 50000 students in grades 8, 10, and 12, surveyed each spring from 1997 through 2002.


RESULTS
Findings indicate that the campaign accounted for a significant portion of the recent decline in youth smoking prevalence. We found that smoking prevalence among all students declined from 25.3% to 18.0% between 1999 and 2002 and that the campaign accounted for approximately 22% of this decline.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that the campaign was associated with substantial declines in youth smoking and has accelerated recent declines in youth smoking prevalence.
Farrelly
Matthew C
MC
RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Rd, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA. mcf@rti.org
Davis
Kevin C
KC
Haviland
M Lyndon
ML
Messeri
Peter
P
Healton
Cheryl G
CG
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000329:Advertising / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology / Q000639:trends; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019460:Tobacco Industry; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
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