State policies such as taxing the sale of cigarettes
and alcohol decrease teenage smoking and drinking,
according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public
Health.
The researchers also found a correlation between an
increased availability of family planning clinics and a
decrease in teen sexual intercourse. The study results
suggest that state and local legislatures can help
teenagers make decisions to avoid unhealthy behaviors by
implementing laws to make cigarettes and beer more
difficult to obtain and increase the number of family
planning clinics. The study is published in the February
issue of Preventive Medicine.
"We found that taxes on cigarettes and beer, tobacco
vending machine restrictions and more family planning
clinics influenced the behavior of teenagers. However, we
want to caution that state policies are neither the only
nor the most important influence on risky behaviors by
teens. Other factors, such as parental involvement, may
have been taking place outside of our study," said David M.
Bishai, lead author and an associate professor in the
Department of Population and Family Health Sciences.
The Johns Hopkins researchers used teen responses to
the 1995 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which was conducted by
20 U.S. states and cities. They analyzed the survey results
with respect to the various states' prices for beer, wine
and spirits; tobacco taxes; and the presence or absence of
state laws on access to tobacco vending machines and family
planning clinics.
They found that teens were 1.9 percent less likely to
smoke and drink when cigarette and alcohol taxes were
higher. Among the regions surveyed, the researchers report
that doubling the number of communities with laws that
prohibit teenagers' access to cigarette vending machines
would lower teen smoking by 9 percent. In addition, a 10
percent increase in the number of family planning clinics
in a community would lead to a 1.3 percent reduction in
unsafe sex among teens.
"It is clear from our study that broader legislation
at the state and city levels contributes to helping youth
decide not to engage in smoking, drinking and sexual
intercourse. It is also interesting to note that, contrary
to the thought that access to a family planning clinic
increases sexual behavior, our study found the opposite
— family planning clinics do not make kids have more
sex," Bishai said.
The authors report that further research is needed to
examine the effects of state and local laws and to explore
whether the societal factors that contribute to the passage
of such state legislation are correlated with better
parenting or healthier teen culture.
The study was supported by a grant from the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Faculty
Innovation Fund. Co-authors are Dan Mercer and Athena
Tapales.