Does Cigarette Promotion Increase Susceptibility to Smoking?

In 1998, using the Index of Receptivity to Tobacco Industry Promotion (IRTIP), it was claimed that tobacco promotion increased youth susceptibility to smoking. Arguably, this claim started the belief that cigarette advertising causes smoking and led to many countries severely restricting cigarette promotion. The problem is, ten years later, youth are still lighting up. Could they have gotten it wrong? The IRTIP procedure is widely used to model the link between promotional activities and susceptibility to product use. It is now being used for other products like alcohol, fast-food and colas. This book reports the results of a verification and re-test of the IRTIP model. Using the original data, it was found that IRTIP magnifies Response-Style and Respondent Drop-Out Biases. These biases are shown to lead to the finding of a positive link between tobacco promotion and susceptibility to smoking. Because the IRTIP process is biased, it may be prudent to revisit the many research studies that have used this procedure. The faulty 1998 claim may have harmed efforts to control and limit the use of cigarettes.