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Booze Brands in Pop Lyrics May Spur Teen Drinking

A new study has found that young people who listen to music that mentions specific alcohol brands are more likely to drink and abuse alcohol.

The average teen is exposed to about eight alcohol brand name mentions per day, said study corresponding author Brian Primack, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh. ”This is based on average exposure of 2.5 hours of music per day, with 3-4 brand mentions each hour,” he said. “However, this is just an average. For some kids it will be more, and for others it will be less.”

According to the research, the participants were placed in three categories — low, medium and high — based on how much they liked music that mentioned alcohol brands. Compared to young people in the low group, those in the high group were over three times more likely to have had a complete drink of alcohol in their lifetime, and were twice as likely to have engaged in binge drinking.

The researchers collected information from more than 3,400 males and females, aged 15 to 23, in the United States. The study will be published in the  June online-only issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/04/08/booze-brands-in-pop-lyrics-may-spur-teen-drinking