News
March 9, 2009
The 11 to 20 percent of American youth who own clothes or other merchandise advertising alcohol are more likely to begin drinking earlier than their peers, according to a recently published study by pediatricians at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
The study surveyed 6,522 youth between ages 10 and 14 in 2003, according to lead author DHMC pediatrician Auden McClure.
The team then conducted three follow-up surveys every eight months, in which participants answered questions about changes in their drinking habits and ownership of alcohol-branded merchandise.
Although the study does not prove that there is a causal link between owning merchandise that promotes alcoholic products and underage drinking, it suggests that pediatricians should caution parents and educators about the potential risks of such products, McClure said.
The study "provides strong evidence that alcohol-branded merchandise distribution among adolescents plays a role in their drinking behavior and provides a basis for policies to restrict the scope of such alcohol-marketing practices," the authors wrote in their conclusion to the study.
Currently, the alcohol industry's policies regulating companies' marketing to youth lag behind those of the cigarette industry, co-author Dartmouth Medical School professor Susanne Tanski, also a DHMC pediatrician, said.
After major tobacco companies voluntarily signed the Master Settlement Agreement, which established marketing restrictions to be enforced by an independent agency, the prevalence of tobacco-related merchandise and its use by youth decreased drastically, Tanski explained.
Marketing restrictions on alcohol products and promotional merchandise, though, are self-enforced, and are largely unsuccessful, Tanski said.
Approximately 3 million teens own alcohol-branded merchandise, despite a Beer Industry Code provision that "no beer identification, including logos, trademarks, or names, should be used or licensed for use on clothing, toys, games or game equipment, or other materials intended for use primarily by persons below the legal drinking age," according to a DHMC press release.
The study's authors pointed to this statistic as evidence that self-regulation was ineffective.
"It seems to me that it would be very helpful if the alcohol industry had more stringent guidelines," Tanski said.
