James F Thrasher, MS, MA¹, Raydel Valdes-Salgado, MA², Isabel Hernandez-Ramos, MD, MPH², Eduardo Lazcano-Ponce, MD, PhD³, and Mauricio Hernandez, MD, ScD⁴. (1) Health Behavior and Health Education, CB#7440, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, (919)960-8512, thrasher@email.unc.edu, (2) Department of Tobacco Research, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Av. Universidad # 655, Col. Sta. Ma. Ahuacatitlán, Cuernavaca, 62508, Mexico, (3) Centro de Investigación en Salud Poblacional, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Avenida Universidad No. 655, Cuernavaca, Mexico, (4) Director Ejecutivo del CISP, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Av. Universidad 655, 3er. Piso, Col. Santa Maria, Cuernavaca, 62508, Mexico

Tobacco prevention messages that focus adolescents’ attention on the deceitful practices of the tobacco industry have been relatively successful in the US. To explore the potential usefulness of this kind of prevention message in Mexico, this analysis examined Mexican adolescents’ anti-tobacco industry attitude as a risk factor for smoking. Data were drawn from the 2003 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, a school-based, cross-sectional survey of Mexican adolescents. Preliminary analyses focused on data from 3,674 students, ages 12 to 15, from Mexico City and Guadalajara. Final analyses will use nationally representative data for all of Mexico. Analyses accounted for the design effect and adjusted for sampling weights. The inter-item reliability for the anti-industry attitude scale was reasonable (a=0.66), and factor analysis confirmed that the anti-industry attitude dimension was distinct both from health outcome expectancies and from social imagery expectancies associated with smoking (e.g., attractiveness of smokers; smokers having more friends). Bivariate analyses indicated positive, statistically significant associations between strength of anti-industry attitude and both female gender and smoking phase (i.e., never smoked, not susceptible to smoking; never smoked, susceptible to smoking; tried smoking, but not in last month; smoked in last month, but on <20 days; smoked >=20 days in last month), but not with age. In multiple regression, age, gender, and anti-industry attitude were independent predictors of smoking phase. These results suggest that anti-industry attitude is an independent risk factor for smoking and that fostering anti-tobacco industry attitudes may be a useful strategy for preventing smoking among Mexican adolescents.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will learn why tobacco-industry focused messages may be useful in preventing tobacco use among Mexican youth.

Keywords: Health Communications, International Public Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.