A new study says if a teen sees more tobacco ads there is a greater chance they will begin smoking, according to HealthDay News.
According to the study done by German researchers, for every 10 tobacco advertisements a teen sees their chances of smoking increase by 40 percent and their risk of becoming an everyday smoker goes up by 30 percent.
According to Dr. Matthis Morgenstern, of the Institute for Therapy and Health Research in Kiel and his colleagues, the study’s results are in correlation with the World Health Organization’s support on a complete ban of tobacco ads.
"Data from this study support this measure, because only exposure to tobacco advertisements predicted smoking initiation, which cannot be attributed to a general receptiveness to marketing," the group said in a journal news release.
The study, done in Germany, incorporated 1,300 non smoking youth ages 10 to 15. The researchers examined their behavior after being exposed to tobacco advertisements for 2.5 years.
According to the study, 33 percent of youth said they tried smoking and 10 percent said they smoked within the last month before the study was over.
Five percent admitted to smoking in excess of 100 cigarettes and were deemed established smokers. Around the same percentage of the group said they were daily smokers. 33 percent of the everyday smokers were 14 or younger.
Those who looked at the most ads during the 2.5 years were two times more likely to turn into established smokers and daily smokers than those who viewed the least ads.
For each additional 10 ads viewed, teens had a 38 percent greater risk of becoming an established smoker and a 30 percent greater risk of being a daily smoker.
After looking at additional major risk factors for smoking, the group determined teens were 3 percent to 7 percent more likely to turn into established smokers and 3 percent to 6 percent more likely to turn into daily smokers, depending on the amount of tobacco ads they viewed.
Despite the fact the group determined an association between smoking risk and ads, they did not establish that viewing tobacco ads directly causes smoking.
The study was published in BMJ Open.
