The study analyzed data from the 2001 HSPH CAS, a random sample of 10,904 students enrolled in 119 nationally representative 4-year U.S. colleges and universities. The study authors were Rigotti, Susan Moran, MD, also of the MGH Tobacco Research and Treatment Center; and Henry Wechsler, PhD, director of the HSPH College Alcohol Study.
Bars and nightclubs have assumed greater importance for tobacco marketing since the Master Settlement Agreement, which limits the distribution of free cigarette samples to facilities that do not admit minors. Bars and nightclubs also are smoker-friendly environments for the tobacco industry, because they are among the few places where smoking is not generally restricted by clean-air laws.
In the study, students who reported attending these events were more likely to be current cigarette smokers (defined as having smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days) than students who had not attended one of these events. Even after statistical adjustments for a broad range of factors that might have explained the relationship, a strong association remained between attending tobacco-industry-sponsored events and current smoking, with those attending such events 75 percent more likely to be current smokers.
Furthermore, the analysis suggested that the effect of bar promotions on smoking behavior was strongest on students who had entered college as nonsmokers. Of the 8,482 students (78 percent) who did not smoke regularly before age 19, the current smoking prevalence rate was 23.7 percent among those who had attended a promotional event compared with 11.8 percent among those who had not. In contrast, in the 2,334 students who smoked regularly before age 19, there was no significant di
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Contact: Julie Bergan
jbergan@partners.org
617-726-0274
Massachusetts General Hospital
28-Dec-2004