The Impact of Alcohol Marketing on Youth Drinking Behaviour
The Impact of Alcohol Marketing on Youth Drinking Behaviour
Aim: To examine whether awareness of, and involvement with alcohol marketing at age 13 is predictive of initiation of drinking, frequency of drinking and units of alcohol consumed at age 15.
Methods: A two-stage cohort study, involving a questionnaire survey, combining interview and self-completion, was administered in respondents' homes. Respondents were drawn from secondary schools in three adjoining local authority areas in the West of Scotland, UK. From a baseline sample of 920 teenagers (aged 12–14, mean age 13), in 2006, a cohort of 552 was followed up 2 years later (aged 14–16, mean age 15). Data were gathered on multiple forms of alcohol marketing and measures of drinking initiation, frequency and consumption.
Results: At follow-up, logistic regression demonstrated that, after controlling for confounding variables, involvement with alcohol marketing at baseline was predictive of both uptake of drinking and increased frequency of drinking. Awareness of marketing at baseline was also associated with an increased frequency of drinking at follow-up.
Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate an association between involvement with, and awareness of, alcohol marketing and drinking uptake or increased drinking frequency, and we consider whether the current regulatory environment affords youth sufficient protection from alcohol marketing.
That many adolescents have used or do you use alcohol is beyond equivocacy. In most countries within the European Union (EU), for instance, more than 70% of youth (15–16 years) admit to drinking alcohol within the previous year, and over 50% within the past month. Further, in the UK, levels of youth binge drinking and past-year and past-month drunkenness are considerably higher than in the rest of the EU (Hibell et al., 2009). So too are the levels of consumption, which have almost doubled between 1990 and 2007 in England (Fuller, 2009). It is these hazardous youth drinking behaviours that represent a major public health concern, given the possible injurious consequences (HM Government, 2007), including poor educational performance, risky sexual behaviour and teenage pregnancy (Newbury-Birch et al., 2009; OECD, 2009), crime and disorder (Hibell et al., 2009; Home Office, 2004) and a range of physical and psychological harms (HES, 2007; Scottish Government, 2010). Additionally, using alcohol at an earlier age is a predictor of future dependency (Bonomo et al., 2004; Newbury-Birch et al., 2009).
Many protective and risk factors have been identified for youth drinking uptake and behaviour. Alcohol marketing has been suggested as one of these risk factors (Babor et al., 2003), with recent systematic reviews appearing to support this assertion (Anderson et al., 2009; Smith and Foxcroft, 2009). This has led to some within the public health field calling for a complete ban on alcohol marketing, arguing that it is pervasive and linked with youth drinking initiation, consumption levels and continued drinking (Anderson, 2009; BMA, 2009; Godlee, 2009). A recent meta-review, however, conducted in the UK on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, does not even consider marketing among the many risk factors identified (Newbury-Birch et al., 2009). Although this seems an important omission, there is a paucity of research exploring the relationship between alcohol marketing and youth drinking behaviour in Europe, and in the UK an absence of longitudinal research—a more powerful design that allows greater confidence when exploring potentially causal links (Gunter et al., 2009; Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, 2004). Highlighting this point, Anderson et al.'s (2009) systematic review of the existing longitudinal research found that 10 of the 13 studies identified were from the USA, one was from New Zealand and only two from Europe; in Belgium and Germany. The European Commission department concerned with health, DG SANCO, also acknowledged the lack of European studies, and in response to this has recently funded a multi-country EU study called the 'Amphora Project' (European Commission, 2009) as well as the aforementioned German study (Hanewinkel and Sargent, 2009).
To address this gap in the literature we present findings from a UK cohort study. Funded as part of the National Preventive Research Initiative (NPRI), the study examines the cumulative impact of alcohol marketing communications on youth drinking during the period when most adolescents start experimenting with alcohol, from age 13 to 15 (Black et al., 2009). In addition, and unlike most research in this area, we also examined non-traditional alcohol marketing channels such as new media, sponsorship and e-marketing.
Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Aim: To examine whether awareness of, and involvement with alcohol marketing at age 13 is predictive of initiation of drinking, frequency of drinking and units of alcohol consumed at age 15.
Methods: A two-stage cohort study, involving a questionnaire survey, combining interview and self-completion, was administered in respondents' homes. Respondents were drawn from secondary schools in three adjoining local authority areas in the West of Scotland, UK. From a baseline sample of 920 teenagers (aged 12–14, mean age 13), in 2006, a cohort of 552 was followed up 2 years later (aged 14–16, mean age 15). Data were gathered on multiple forms of alcohol marketing and measures of drinking initiation, frequency and consumption.
Results: At follow-up, logistic regression demonstrated that, after controlling for confounding variables, involvement with alcohol marketing at baseline was predictive of both uptake of drinking and increased frequency of drinking. Awareness of marketing at baseline was also associated with an increased frequency of drinking at follow-up.
Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate an association between involvement with, and awareness of, alcohol marketing and drinking uptake or increased drinking frequency, and we consider whether the current regulatory environment affords youth sufficient protection from alcohol marketing.
Introduction
That many adolescents have used or do you use alcohol is beyond equivocacy. In most countries within the European Union (EU), for instance, more than 70% of youth (15–16 years) admit to drinking alcohol within the previous year, and over 50% within the past month. Further, in the UK, levels of youth binge drinking and past-year and past-month drunkenness are considerably higher than in the rest of the EU (Hibell et al., 2009). So too are the levels of consumption, which have almost doubled between 1990 and 2007 in England (Fuller, 2009). It is these hazardous youth drinking behaviours that represent a major public health concern, given the possible injurious consequences (HM Government, 2007), including poor educational performance, risky sexual behaviour and teenage pregnancy (Newbury-Birch et al., 2009; OECD, 2009), crime and disorder (Hibell et al., 2009; Home Office, 2004) and a range of physical and psychological harms (HES, 2007; Scottish Government, 2010). Additionally, using alcohol at an earlier age is a predictor of future dependency (Bonomo et al., 2004; Newbury-Birch et al., 2009).
Many protective and risk factors have been identified for youth drinking uptake and behaviour. Alcohol marketing has been suggested as one of these risk factors (Babor et al., 2003), with recent systematic reviews appearing to support this assertion (Anderson et al., 2009; Smith and Foxcroft, 2009). This has led to some within the public health field calling for a complete ban on alcohol marketing, arguing that it is pervasive and linked with youth drinking initiation, consumption levels and continued drinking (Anderson, 2009; BMA, 2009; Godlee, 2009). A recent meta-review, however, conducted in the UK on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, does not even consider marketing among the many risk factors identified (Newbury-Birch et al., 2009). Although this seems an important omission, there is a paucity of research exploring the relationship between alcohol marketing and youth drinking behaviour in Europe, and in the UK an absence of longitudinal research—a more powerful design that allows greater confidence when exploring potentially causal links (Gunter et al., 2009; Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, 2004). Highlighting this point, Anderson et al.'s (2009) systematic review of the existing longitudinal research found that 10 of the 13 studies identified were from the USA, one was from New Zealand and only two from Europe; in Belgium and Germany. The European Commission department concerned with health, DG SANCO, also acknowledged the lack of European studies, and in response to this has recently funded a multi-country EU study called the 'Amphora Project' (European Commission, 2009) as well as the aforementioned German study (Hanewinkel and Sargent, 2009).
To address this gap in the literature we present findings from a UK cohort study. Funded as part of the National Preventive Research Initiative (NPRI), the study examines the cumulative impact of alcohol marketing communications on youth drinking during the period when most adolescents start experimenting with alcohol, from age 13 to 15 (Black et al., 2009). In addition, and unlike most research in this area, we also examined non-traditional alcohol marketing channels such as new media, sponsorship and e-marketing.
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