A study conducted in England on the association of tobacco display and brand communications at the point-of-sale (PoS) and adolescent smoking behaviour has found a positive relation between the two.
Exposure to and awareness of PoS displays and brands in displays were associated with smoking susceptibility in the study that covered more than 5,000 students between the ages of 11 and 15 years.
The odds of ever-smoking doubled for those visiting shops almost daily relative to less than once a week, and susceptibility increased by around 60%. Noticing tobacco on display every time during store visits increased the odds of susceptibility more than threefold compared with never noticing tobacco.
For each additional tobacco brand recognised at the PoS, the adjusted odds of being an ever-smoker increased by 5% and of susceptibility by 4%. The association between frequency of visiting stores and susceptibility was predominantly due to exposure in small shops.
This study shows that tobacco displays are a potentially effective channel for promoting cigarette brands to young people, linking such promotion with ever-smoking and susceptibility to future smoking. The association between exposure to tobacco displays and susceptibility to smoke is predominantly explained by exposure in small shops and therefore the tobacco ban in supermarkets in England fails to safeguard young people from exposure associated with smoking initiation.
In England, point-of-sale (PoS) displays in larger shops were prohibited in April 2012, with an exemption for smaller retailers until 2015.
Source: Tobacco Control journal
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