Table 3

Association of tobacco product advertising and conclusions of lay press articles

Presence of tobacco advertisingArticles concluding that passive smoking is a health hazard
n (%)
Articles concluding that research on passive smoking is controversial
n (%)
Magazines (n = 92)
Present (n = 53)36 (68)38 (72)
 Not present (n = 39)37 (95)12 (31)
p = 0.002p<0.0001
Newspapers (n = 180)
Present (n = 88)86 (98)52 (59)
 Not present (n = 92)84 (91)66 (72)
χ2 = 2.42; p = 0.12χ2 = 2.65; p = 0.07
  • For magazines, differences between articles from magazines with or without tobacco advertising were analysed using Fisher's Exact test. For newspapers, data were analysed using the χ2statistic.