title: Exposure of Secondary School Adolescents from Argentina and Mexico to Smoking Scenes in Movies: a Population-based Estimation.
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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  At the population level, movies aimed at children are responsible for the highest tobacco burden seen by adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES). Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: María V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Salgado
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES). Buenos Aires, Argentina; Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Investigación para el Control del Tabaco, Centro de Investigación en Salud Poblacional, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública. Cuernavaca, México.
authors.forename: Erika N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Abad-Vivero
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Investigación para el Control del Tabaco, Centro de Investigación en Salud Poblacional, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública. Cuernavaca, México; Department of Health Promotion, Education & Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: James F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Thrasher
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA.
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Sargent
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES). Buenos Aires, Argentina; Programa de Medicina Interna General, Hospital de Clínicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Raúl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mejía
keywords: Adolescents; Argentina; Mexico; Motion Pictures; Smoking