Teenagers exposed to alcohol ads drink more, study finds

The more money the alcohol industry spends on advertising, the more young people drink, according to a new UConn study published in the Jan. 3 issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

“We found that alcohol advertising contributes to significant increases in youth drinking,” says Leslie Snyder, professor of communication sciences and lead author of the study. “The number of ads youth see matters. Living in a media market with many ads matters.”

While other researchers have used local or aggregate studies to determine whether a relationship exists between alcohol advertising and youth drinking, Snyder and her colleagues at UConn and Ohio State University provide the first national, longitudinal look at the issue.

“This is the most solid piece of research evidence to come forth to date linking exposure to alcohol advertising to increased youth drinking,” says David Jernigan, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

The study garnered both national and international media attention, including a story by Reuters that was widely picked up, and interviews on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and BBC radio.

Among the study’s key findings:

• Young people ages 15 to 26 who reported seeing more alcohol advertisements drank more on average, with each additional ad seen increasing the number of drinks consumed by 1 percent.
• Young people living in media markets with greater alcohol advertising expenditures drank more, with each additional dollar spent per capita increasing the number of drinks consumed by 3 percent.
• Young people in media markets with more alcohol advertisements showed increases in drinking into their late 20s, but alcohol consumption leveled in the early 20s for those living in media markets with fewer ads.
• Based on the study results, a 20-year-old male who saw few alcohol ads and lived in a media market with minimal advertising expenditures per capita was predicted to have nine alcoholic drinks in the past month, compared to 16 drinks in the past month if he saw many ads.
• A 20-year-old male living in a media market with the highest ad spending per capita was predicted to have 15 drinks if he reported little ad exposure and 26 drinks if he saw many ads.

As part of the study, the researchers also examined the alcohol ad exposures and drinking behaviors of only those youths ages 15 to 21 and found little difference between their behaviors and those of the larger sample of youths, ages 15 to 26.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which funded the study, has identified underage and youth drinking as “an enormous public health problem in the United States,” citing a host of adverse short-term and long-term effects. Among them: alterations in brain development, poor academic performance, risky sexual behavior, increased likelihood of alcohol addiction, and increased likelihood of fatal alcohol-related accidents, including car crashes.

Snyder and her colleagues conducted the study to address a long-standing debate whether young people drink more because of alcohol advertising, or young people who drink more simply pay more attention to alcohol advertisements.