R Ratings for Movies with Smoking?

The 2012 Surgeon General's Report concludes that a causal relation exists between exposure to smoking in movies and initiation of smoking in youth, but does the portrayal of smoking alone or the context in which it occurs underlie the association? Investigators examined this question using data from a longitudinal cohort study of 6522 adolescents (age range, 10–14 years) recruited in 2003 and surveyed every 8 months for 2 years (JW Pediatr Adolesc Med Apr 4 2012).

Exposure to smoking in the movies was determined by calculating the number of times a character handled or used tobacco or tobacco use was depicted in the background of movies that adolescents reported to have seen from a random sample of the top 100 U.S. box office hits. The media…