Exposure of adolescents and young adults to alcohol advertising in Brazil

With the objective of examining adolescents' and young adults' exposure to alcohol advertising in Brazil as well as the relationship between exposure and heavy alcohol consumption, 3007 subjects were selected through a multistage cluster sample procedure from households in 143 municipalities in all Brazilian states and interviewed between November 2005 and April 2006. Data presented here come from a subsample of 1091 interviews with adolescents (661 with 14-17 years old) and young adults (430 with 18-25 years old), and were collected on sociodemographic characteristics, alcohol consumption, alcohol advertising exposure and exposure to prevention messages. The authors observed that 61% of the sample reported exposure to alcohol advertising in different media, from 'almost every day' to 'more than once a day' in the previous month. 12% reported seeing an alcohol prevention message. Participating in alcohol promotions in pubs, restaurants or the internet was reported by 10.7% of the adolescents and was significantly associated with patterns of high intensity drinking. Adolescents were as exposed as, and sometimes more, than young adults, leading the authors to conclude that youngsters were heavily exposed to alcohol marketing messages.