Exposure to Alcohol Use in Movies and Problematic Use of Alcohol: A Longitudinal Study Among Latin American Adolescents

Objective:This study assesses the association between exposure to alcohol in movies and alcohol use transitions among Latin American adolescents.Method:A school-based longitudinal study involving 33 secondary schools in Argentina and 57 in Mexico was performed. The baseline sample included 1,504 never drinker adolescents in Argentina and 5,264 in Mexico (mean age = 12.5 years), of whom 1,055 and 3,540, respectively, completed a follow-up survey a year and a half later. Exposure to the 500 popular contemporary films was assessed by querying adolescents on 50 randomly selected titles. Films were content-coded for alcohol and exposure estimated from films seen. Logistic regression models estimated adjusted relative risk (aRR) for the following outcomes, net covariates, at follow-up: use of alcohol (having ever drank), current drinking (drinking in the past 30 days), ever binge drinking (≥ 4 drinks [females] or 5 for males).Results:At follow-up, respective adolescent drinking rates for Mexico and Argentina we...