Prevalence of smoking among major movie characters: 1996-2004.
BACKGROUND
Reports of a relationship between watching smoking in movies and smoking among adolescents have prompted greater scrutiny of smoking in movies by the public health community.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the smoking prevalence among adult and adolescent movie characters, examine trends in smoking in movies over time, and compare the data with actual smoking prevalence among US adults and adolescents.


METHODS
Smoking status of all major human adolescent and adult movie characters in the top 100 box office hits from 1996 to 2004 (900 movies) was assessed, and smoking prevalence was examined by Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating and year of release.


RESULTS
The movies contained 5944 major characters, of whom 4911 were adults and 466 were adolescents. Among adult movie characters, the overall smoking prevalence was 20.6%; smoking was more common in men than in women (22.6% v 16.1%, respectively, p<0.001), and was related to MPAA rating category (26.9% for movies rated R (restricted, people aged <17 years require accompanying adult), 17.9% for PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned that some material might be inappropriate for children) and 10.4% for G/PG (general audiences, all ages; parental guidance suggested for children), p<0.001). In 1996, the smoking prevalence for major adult movie characters (25.7%) was similar to that in the actual US population (24.7%). Smoking prevalence among adult movie characters declined to 18.4% in 2004 (p for trend <0.001), slightly below that for the US population for that year (20.9%). Examination of trends by MPAA rating showed that the downward trend in smoking among adult movie characters was statistically significant in movies rated G/PG and R, but not in those rated PG-13. A downward trend over time was also found for smoking among adolescent movie characters. There was no smoking among adult characters in 43.3% of the movies; however, in 39% of the movies, smoking prevalence among adult characters was higher than that in the US adult population in the year of release.


CONCLUSIONS
Smoking prevalence among major adolescent and adult movie characters is declining, with the downward trend among adult characters weakest for PG-13-rated movies. Although many movies depict no adult smoking, more than one third depict smoking as more prevalent than that among US adults at the time of release.
Worth
Keilah A
KA
Cancer Prevention Research Program, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA.
Dal Cin
Sonya
S
Sargent
James D
JD
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009040:Motion Pictures / Q000145:classification; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012931:Social Environment; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology