Paul M. Fischer

Adolescents' Attention to Beer and Cigarette Print Ads and Associated Product Warnings

Abstract Much of the controversy surrounding the advertising of tobacco and alcohol products concerns the impact on young people. Eye tracking was used to determine how a large sample of adolescents attend to print ads for cigarettes, beer, and other products. In particular, the time spent viewing the ads, the percentages attending to mandated and voluntary warning messages, and the time spent viewing those messages were analyzed. The two cigarette ads had similar mandated warnings but produced very different results, thus demonstrating the importance of conducting warnings research in the context in which the warnings will be used. Finally, preliminary results based on eye tracking indicate that in the beer ad, the voluntary message encouraging responsible drinking had limited warning value.

Relationship between high school student smoking and recognition of cigarette advertisements

We report the results of a study examining the level of advertisement recognition and tobacco experimentation in a group of U.S. high school students. Students who smoked as few as one cigarette per week were found to identify a preferred cigarette brand. One brand of cigarettes accounted for 76% of all preferred brands. A dose-response relationship was found between smoking level and cigarette advertisement recognition, with regular smokers recognizing 61.6% of advertisements, compared with only 33.2% for nonsmokers. These data have potential implications for youth smoking prevention programs. Future research is needed to explain this association and to establish whether cigarette advertising and adolescent smoking are causally related.

Hospital nurse counseling of patients who smoke.

Smoking-related diseases comprise a large portion of hospital admissions. This paper reports the attitudes and behaviors of a group of hospital-based nurses toward counseling patients on smoking cessation. The majority of nurses do not counsel patients who smoke. Counseling practices vary with the smoking status of the nurse. Barriers to increased nursing participation in counseling efforts include the lack of counseling training and physician failure to utilize nurses in this role.

Sociocultural Correlates of Substance Use among Medical Students.

Medical students at four regional medical schools were administered a questionnaire regarding drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, and involvement in sensation-seeking sports and activities. Results of the study indicated that tobacco use was minimal, drug use was moderately low, and alcohol use was extensive. Increased alcohol use was strongly correlated with heavy drinking patterns in parents and male students while decreased drinking was strongly correlated with frequent religious attendance patterns. Students actively using drugs were more likely to have heavy drinking parents and to attend church infrequently. Protestant students and black students were least likely to be involved in drug use. Drug, alcohol, and tobacco use were significantly correlated. Those who use drugs tend to be heavy drinkers and smokers. Preventive education programs can utilize the results in medical school to inform students of potential problem areas based on sociodemographic influences.

Tobacco In The Third World

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5915/19-1-12832 There has been a recent increase in the smoking of cigarettes by people in the developing countries of the world. This increase has been largely due to the marketing efforts of a few large international tobacco companies. The effects on the health of the people of the third world have begun to be documentable. This paper discusses this problem and suggests implications for Muslim physicians.