Team Sports Can't Compete With Films to Keep Kids From Smoking

July 7 -- MONDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- Taking part in team sports lowers the odds of children smoking, but it can't compete with the powerful influence of smoking in movies, a new study finds.

Movies can shape popular taste and behavior, from clothing to cultural habits; other studies have found that seeing smoking in movies increases the chances that children will light up. As many as 30 percent to 50 percent of adolescent smokers attribute their smoking to seeing it in films, researchers say.

"Team sports is clearly protective to prevent youth from smoking," said lead researcher Anna M. Adachi-Mejia, a research assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Hood Center for Children and Families, at Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H.

But movies can undo that positive effect, Adachi-Mejia said. "Parents need to be aware of the need to minimize their child's exposure to movie smoking," she said. "So even if their child plays sports, that's not enough."

Adachi-Mejia noted that parents can go to Web sites to check out whether a movie has smoking scenes or not. In addition, ratings are a good way to choose films that are appropriate for children, she added.

The report is published in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

For the study, Adachi-Mejia's team collected data on 2,048 children, first in 1999 and again in 2007. Smoking exposure in movies was assessed when the children were 9 to 14 years old, and participation in team sports was assessed when the same youths were 16 to 21.

At follow-up, 17.2 percent of the individuals were smokers. Those who said they saw the most movies with smoking when they were aged 9 to 14 were much more likely to be smokers compared with those who saw the fewest movies with smoking at an early age, the researchers found.

Although people who did not take part in team sports were twice as likely to become smokers as those who played sports, "in both team sports participants and nonparticipants, the proportion of established smokers increased from lowest to highest levels of movie smoking exposure by the same amount, 19.3 percent," the researchers wrote.