NAQC Newsroom: Research

Share of Advertising Voice at the Point-of-Sale and its Influence on At-Risk Students' Use of Altern

Monday, August 13, 2018  
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Beleva Y, Pike JR, Miller S, Xie B, Ames SL, Stacy AW.
Share of Advertising Voice at the Point-of-Sale and its Influence on At-Risk Students' Use of Alternative Tobacco Products.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2018 Jul 19. doi: 10.1093/ntr/nty152. [Epub ahead of print]

As adolescent tobacco use shifts from traditional cigarettes to alternative products, it is important to understand the influence of point-of-sale (POS) advertising on product use. This research investigated whether the percentage of POS advertising for a particular product, known as the share of advertising voice (SAV), moderated the relationship between exposure to POS tobacco advertisements and tobacco use among at-risk youth. Longitudinal self-report data from 746 students attending 20 alternative high schools in southern California was merged with observational data cataloging 2,101 advertisements for cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco from 87 tobacco retail outlets within a half-mile of the schools. Four multilevel Poisson regression models examined whether SAV interacted with POS tobacco advertising exposure to influence the use of tobacco products one year later. Adolescent exposure to POS tobacco advertisements was significantly associated with increased use of all four tobacco products (p < .02). When SAV was added to the model as a moderator the results showed a significant interaction, such that increasing the SAV for e-cigarettes was associated with greater use of that product (B = 0.27, SE = 0.07, p < .001). The same moderating effect was found for smokeless tobacco (B = 0.56, SE = 0.19, p = .004) but no moderating effect was observed for cigarettes or cigars. POS SAV has the potential to influence at-risk students' use of alternative tobacco products and may be a contributing factor to recent nationwide shifts in youth tobacco use.