Pioneering research led by the Tobacco Control Unit of the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) has analyzed the presence of tobacco-related images in television programs during prime time in Spain.
The research, recently published in the journal Tobacco Induced Diseases , reveals a worrying exposure of young audiences to television content related to tobacco that contributes to the normalization of its consumption and increases the risk of initiation .
This study is the first in Spain to estimate the population impact of this type of content, calculating the number of impressions generated, that is, the total number of times viewers have been exposed to images related to tobacco.
Exposure of young audiences to tobacco-related content
The work, entitled “Tobacco imagery in prime-time television in Spain: A content analysis”, analyzes more than 63,000 minutes of programming from 18 channels during 2021. The results show that 2.4% of the time analyzed contained tobacco-related images, which translates into 8.5 million impressions among viewers between 4 and 24 years old.
These figures show that, although the presence of tobacco images may seem low, the number of impressions for young people is very high. “This massive exposure can influence young people’s perception of tobacco consumption, normalizing it and increasing the risk that they will start smoking,” warns Dr. Armando Peruga , an expert in smoking and lead author of the study.
Child protection hours
Although the presence of tobacco images decreases during child protection hours , the researchers detected 470 tobacco-related images during these hours , which generated 15.6 million impressions during this time. In addition, many children still watch television outside of these hours, thus exposing themselves to a much higher prevalence. “Children are not completely protected from this type of content. Protection measures need to be strengthened,” says Dr. Peruga.