The effectiveness of anti-smoking advertising on youth smoking since 2003 : a systematic review

Abstract

Youth tobacco use is a major public health problem worldwide. Studies show that there is an association between exposure to anti-smoking advertising and youth smoking prevalence. Anti-smoking advertising can be used as an important tobacco control measure to prevent youth smoking.

The objectives of this review mainly focus on evaluating the effectiveness of anti-smoking advertising on youth smoking, analyzing the influential factors that may affect the effectiveness.

4 main databases, PubMed, EBSCO, Scopus and Google Scholar were included for literature searching, as well as the reference lists, and 483 related articles were found initially. After restricted by the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 11 articles were included for analysis ultimately.

According to this review, the influential factors included the exposure rate, sponsor, promotion approaches and the theme of anti-smoking advertising. Those factors have significant effects on youth’s smoking behavior and smoking prevalence. Non-tobacco industry sponsored, high exposure rate, the theme of negative life circumstance and using humor as a vehicle to deliver anti-smoking messages can be effective in reducing the smoking rate among youth. However, the methods used in the included articles were uneven, and the mechanism of the anti-smoking advertising on youth smoking is still unclear, further research should be conducted. The results of this review can still have some instructions to policy-makers on formulating tobacco control measures in the future, especially the anti-smoking program.