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truth® Saves 450,000 Lives and Nearly $2 Billion Dollars
2/12/2009
New Research Papers Re-Affirm Effectiveness of Youth Smoking Prevention Campaign
Washington, DC - February 12, 2009 – Three new research papers find that truth®, the national youth smoking prevention campaign from the American Legacy Foundation®, remains highly effective as well as cost-efficient in its mission to prevent the youth of America from beginning to smoke. Two of the papers are published online today from the April issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM), while the third study appears in the February issue of Ethnicity and Health.
The first paper appearing online today finds that truth® was directly responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke during its first four years, while the second study found that the campaign not only paid for itself in its first two years, but also saved between $1.9 and $5.4 billion in medical care costs to society. The two papers will be published in the April issue of AJPM but are available today on the Journal’s Web site, www.ajpm-online.net. A third paper appearing in the February issue of Ethnicity and Health shows that youth exposed to the truth® campaign were more likely to have anti-tobacco beliefs and attitudes.
“These studies further validate the evolving approach to youth public education we have applied since the campaign first launched in 2000,” said Dr. Cheryl G. Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation®. “The kinds of outreach we are doing now versus our tactics of year one are very different, including conducting more online outreach, and further extending grassroots efforts and media partnerships. It is indeed gratifying to know that a growing body of research continues to prove that, even over time, the campaign remains remarkably relevant to teens’ lives and effective in promoting healthy, educated choices when it comes to tobacco use.”
Details on the three studies include:
- The first study, titled “The Influence of the National truth® Campaign on Smoking Initiation” was conducted by researchers at RTI International. Lead author Matthew Farrelly and his team found a direct correlation between the level of truth® advertising to which teens were exposed and a decrease in the amount of teens who began smoking. According to the study, “approximately 450,000 fewer adolescents and young adults initiated smoking as a result of the truth® campaign from 2000 to 2004.” The full results of the paper can be found at www.ajpm-online.net/current.
- The second study, called “Cost-utility Analysis of the “truth®” Social Marketing Campaign to Prevent Youth Smoking,” was lead by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Co-author Dr. David Holtgrave examined whether the economic investment in the campaign was justifiable given its effect on public health outcomes. The study looked at the years 2000 to 2002 and found that “truth® not only markedly improved the public’s health but did so in an economically efficient manner by not only recouping the costs of the campaign, but also saving between $1.9 and $5.4 billion in medical care costs to society.”
Ø The authors of the study also considered a “pessimistic” case that takes into account the argument that individuals who never smoke or who quit smoking live longer than smokers, and incur additional medical costs due to their longer lifespan. In the pessimistic case “the authors estimate that the cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year saved [by the truth® campaign] is $4,302. This cost per QALY saved is ten times less than any readily accepted standard for determining whether or not an intervention is cost-effective to society.”
Ø Note: the “Cost-utility” study was partially funded by the American Legacy Foundation®. Researchers from Legacy and Columbia University also participated in the study. Cheryl Healton is co-author of the study.
Ø The full results of the paper can be found at www.ajpm-online.net/current.
- In the third study, “The Impact of the 'Truth' Campaign on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Intent to Smoke by Race/Ethnicity,” researchers from RTI International set out to “examine racial/ethnic differences in the association between exposure to the 'truth' antismoking campaign and youth's beliefs and attitudes about cigarette companies and their intent to smoke.” Lead author AJ Cowell and his team write that the data from the research “indicates that exposure to the truth® campaign was positively associated with increased anti-tobacco beliefs and attitudes among youth overall.” The study underscores that different truth® campaign messages appealed to youth based on their race/ethnicity, an issue that should be considered when developing future campaigns to reach youth with behavior change messages.
February 2009 marks the ninth anniversary of the truth® campaign – a campaign that has always focused on reaching teens in their daily lives, and using peer-to-peer communication to empower teens to make their own informed choices about tobacco use. truth® ads are hard-hitting and graphic because research has proven that that is what teens respond to. Over the years, the campaign has developed memorable television commercials, impactful print advertisements, an iconic presence on summer musical and sporting tours, and integrated the campaign’s key messages into technologies that teens use every day. The campaign has been heralded by study after study for resonating with teens and affecting change in their attitudes and behaviors toward tobacco use.
FURTHER RESEARCH:
In 2005, the American Journal of Public Health released a study that found that truth® was directly responsible for 300,000 fewer smokers in the first two years of its existence. In May 2007, the Institutes of Medicine presented a landmark report to Congress that found that America must implement strategies that effectively reduce and prevent smoking and combine those efforts with a changed regulatory and policy landscape to fight the nation’s number-one cause of preventable death: tobacco-related disease. The report specifically mentions the truth® campaign, and “concludes that a national, youth-oriented media campaign should be a permanent component of the nation’s strategy to reduce tobacco.”
Most recently, the Monitoring the Future study from December 2008 found monthly smoking prevalence among youth to be at historically low levels. The study found 8th grade smoking rates down by two-thirds; 10th graders by more than half; and 12th graders’ rates down by nearly half since recent peaks in the mid-90s. The report cited “the American Legacy Foundation, which has sponsored national antismoking ad campaigns aimed at youth in the years since,” as factors in the decline.
Nearly 80% of American adults who smoke, started before the age of 18. Just today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) with findings from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), that conclude the most heavily advertised brands of cigarettes remain those most preferred by youth smokers - Marlboro, Camel and Newport. The four separate studies made public today underscore the critical need for science-based national youth smoking prevention and effective counter-marketing campaigns to educate the nation’s youth about tobacco and safeguard them from lifetime smoking addictions that have the potential to cut their lives short.
The American Legacy Foundation® and the truth® campaign have achieved this with only a fraction of the budget that the tobacco industry has spent on marketing its products. As of 2005 Federal Trade Commission figures, the tobacco industry spends nearly $36 million dollars a day on domestic marketing, an amount that exceeds the annual truth® budget. Currently, the Foundation faces a serious budgetary drop-off that may jeopardize its ability to develop and sustain its effective campaigns.
MEDIA BRIEFING CALL
A media briefing conference call to discuss the recent truth® research papers will be conducted on Wednesday, February 18 at 1PM Eastern.
Phone in number: (866) 499-6378
Conference Code: 2024545161
Leader PIN: 8157
Reservationless Plus International Dial-In Number: (480) 337-5134
Speakers include:
- Dr. Cheryl Healton, President & CEO, American Legacy Foundation
- Dr. Matthew Farrelly Ph.D., senior director of RTI International's Public Health Policy Research Program; lead author, The Influence of the National truth® Campaign on Smoking Initiation.
- Dr. David Holtgrave (Professor and Chair of the Department of Health, Behavior & Society in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health); lead author Cost-utility Analysis of the “truth®” Social Marketing Campaign to Prevent Youth Smoking.
BACKGROUND ON THE truth® CAMPAIGN
truth®, launched in February 2000, is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction, and the health effects and social consequences of smoking. truth® allows teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org/.
The American Legacy Foundation® is equipped with a VideoLink ReadyCam™ television studio system, providing you with faster, easier access to the nation’s leading tobacco prevention and cessation experts. From this in-house broadcast studio, Legacy can offer immediate access to its experts to comment on breaking news, new research publications, or any news related to youth smoking prevention, adult quit smoking programs, or any issue related to smoking. The studio is connected directly to the Vyvx fiber network and is always available for live or pre-taped interviews. To arrange an interview using the ReadyCam, please contact Julia Cartwright at 202-454-5596.
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Contact: Patricia McLaughlin, American Legacy Foundation, 202-454-5560, pmclaughlin@americanlegacy.org; Trish O’Callaghan, the ad*itive, 215-525-1101, pocallaghan@ad-itive.com