Association of media literacy with cigarette smoking among youth in Jujuy, Argentina

The aim of the research by Drs. Maria Victoria Salgado, Eliseo J. Perez-Stable and colleagues was to determine whether media literacy related to smoking is independently associated with current smoking and susceptibility to future smoking in a sample of mostly indigenous youth in Jujuy, Argentina. Higher media literacy, defined as the ability to analyze and evaluate media messages, has been associated with lower smoking among youth in the United States. To read full article, click here

In 2006, a self-administered survey was conducted among 10th graders sampled from 27 randomly selected urban and rural schools in Jujuy. Of the 3,470 respondents, 1,170 reported having smoked in the previous 30 days. Of the 1,430 students who had never smoked, 912 were susceptible to future smoking. High media literacy was present in 38%. Using multiple logistic regression, fully adjusted models showed that high media literacy was significantly associated as a protective factor of being a current smoker and of being susceptible to future smoking among those who had never smoked. We conclude that among youth in Jujuy, higher Smoking Media Literacy (SML) was significantly associated with both lower current smoking and susceptibility to future smoking. Teaching SML may be a valuable component in a prevention intervention in this population.