Alcohol marketing, adolescent drinking and publication bias in longitudinal studies: A critical survey using meta-analysis

Journal of Economic Surveys

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 191-232

  Nelson, Jon P ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Adolescents; Advertising; Alcohol; Meta analysis; Publication bias

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENCE; ALCOHOL; DRINKING; MARKETING; META-ANALYSIS; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; SAMPLING BIAS;

EID: 79952306703     PISSN: 09500804     EISSN: 14676419     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6419.2010.00627.x     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. AlcoholPolicyMD.com. (2005) Environmental prevention: the effects of environmental factors on alcohol use and abuse. Available at (last accessed 29 December 2009).
2. Anderson, P. (2007) The Impact of Alcohol Advertising: ELSA Project Report. Utrecht National Foundation for Alcohol Prevention.
3. Anderson, P. (2009) Is it time to ban alcohol advertising Clinical Medicine, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians 9: 121-124.
4. Anderson, P., de Bruijn, A., Angus, K., Gordon, R. and Hastings, G. (2009) Impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies. Alcohol and Alcoholism 44: 229-243.
5. Austin, E.W., Chen, M.-J. and Grube, J.W. (2006) How does alcohol advertising influence underage drinking? The role of desirability, identification and skepticism. Journal of Adolescent Health 38: 376-384.
6. Babor, T., Caetano, R., Casswell, S., Edwards, G., Giesbrecht, N., Graham, K., Grube, J., Gruenewald, P., Hill, L., Holder, H., Homel, R., Osterberg, E., Rehm, J., Room, R. and Rossow, I. (2003) Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity - Research and Public Policy. Oxford Oxford University Press.
7. Begg, C.B. and Berlin, J.A. (1988) Publication bias: a problem in interpreting medical data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Part A) 151: 419-445.
8. Borenstein, M. (2005) Software for publication bias. In H.R. Rothstein, A.J. Sutton and M. Borenstein (eds), Publication Bias in Meta-analysis - Prevention, Assessment and Adjustments (pp. 193-220). Chichester Wiley.
9. Borenstein, M., Hedges, L., Higgins, J. and Rothstein, H. (2008) Comprehensive Meta Analysis (Vol. 2.2). Englewood, NJ Biostat.
10. Borenstein, M., Hedges, L.V., Higgins, J.P.T. and Rothstein, H.R. (2009) Introduction to Meta-analysis. Chichester Wiley.
11. Card, D. and Kruger, A.B. (1995) Time-series minimum-wage studies: a meta-analysis. American Economic Review 85: 238-243.
12. Casswell, S. (2004) Alcohol brands in young peoples' everyday lives: new developments in marketing. Alcohol and Alcoholism 39: 471-476.
13. Casswell, S., Pledger, M. and Pratap, S. (2002) Trajectories of drinking from 18 to 26 years: identification and prediction. Addiction 97: 1427-1437.
14. Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (2006) Still Growing After All These Years: Youth Exposure to Alcohol Advertising on Television, 2001-2005. Washington, DC CAMY. Available at (last accessed on 29 December 2009).
15. Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (2007a) Youth Exposure to Alcohol Advertising on Television and in National Magazines, 2001 to 2006. Washington, DC CAMY. At (last accessed on 29 December 2009).
16. Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (2007b) Alcohol Advertising and Youth. Washington, DC CAMY. Available at (last accessed on 29 December 2009).
17. Center for Science in the Public Interest (2005) Take a Kid to a Beer: How the NCAA Recruits Kids for the Beer Market. Washington, DC CSPI. Available at (last accessed on 29 December 2009).
18. Collins, R.L., Ellickson, P.L., McCaffrey, D. and Hambarsoomians, K. (2007) Early adolescent exposure to alcohol advertising and its relationship to underage drinking. Journal of Adolescent Health 40: 527-534.
19. Connolly, G.M., Casswell, S., Zhang, J.-F. and Silva, P.A. (1994) Alcohol in the mass media and drinking by adolescents: a longitudinal study. Addiction 89: 1255-1263.
20. Dickersin, K. (2005) Publication bias: recognizing the problem, understanding its origins and scope, and preventing harm. In H.R. Rothstein, A.J. Sutton and M. Borenstein (eds), Publication Bias in Meta-analysis - Prevention, Assessment and Adjustments (pp. 11-33). Chichester Wiley.
21. Doucouliagos, H. and Stanley, T.D. (2008) Theory competition and selectivity: are all economic facts greatly exaggerated Meta-analysis of Economic Research Network. Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).
22. Doucouliagos, H. and Stanley, T.D. (2009) Publication selection bias in minimum-wage research? A meta-regression analysis. British Journal of Industrial Relations 47: 406-428.
23. Duval, S. (2005) The trim and fill method. In H.R. Rothstein, A.J. Sutton and M. Borenstein (eds), Publication Bias in Meta-analysis - Prevention, Assessment and Adjustments (pp. 127-144). Chichester Wiley.
24. Duval, S.J. and Tweedie, R.L. (2000) Trim and fill: a simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics 56: 455-463.
25. Egger, M., Davey Smith, G., Schneider, M. and Minder, C. (1997) Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. British Medical Journal 315: 629-634.
26. Ellickson, P.L., Collins, R.L., Hambarsoomians, K. and McCaffrey, D.F. (2005) Does alcohol advertising promote adolescent drinking? Results from a longitudinal assessment. Addiction 100: 235-246.
27. European Alcohol and Health Forum (2009) Does Marketing Communication Impact on the Volume and Patterns of Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages, Especially by Young People? - A Review of Longitudinal Studies. Geneva European Commission. Available at (last accessed on 29 December 2009).
28. Federal Trade Commission (1999) Self-Regulation in the Alcohol Industry: A Review of Industry Efforts to Avoid Promoting Alcohol to Underage Consumers - A Report to Congress. Washington, DC FTC.
29. Federal Trade Commission (2003) Alcohol Marketing and Advertising: A Report to Congress. Washington, DC FTC.
30. Federal Trade Commission (2008) Self-Regulation in the Alcohol Industry: Report of the Federal Trade Commission. Washington, DC FTC.
31. Fisher, L.B., Miles, I.W., Austin, S.B., Camargo, C.A. and Colditz, G.A. (2007) Predictors of initiation of alcohol use among US adolescents: findings from a prospective cohort study. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 161: 959-966.
32. Fleming, K., Thorson, E. and Atkin, C.K. (2004) Alcohol advertising exposure and perceptions: links with alcohol expectancies and intentions to drink or drinking in underaged youth and young adults. Journal of Health Communication 9: 3-29.
33. Florax, R.J.G.M. (2002) Methodological pitfalls in meta-analysis: publication bias. In R.J.G.M. Florax, P. Nijkamp and K.G. Willis (eds), Comparative Environmental Assessment (pp. 177-207). Cheltenham Elgar.
34. Gentile, D.A., Walsh, D.A., Bloomgren, B.W., Atti, J.A. and Norman, J.A. (2001) Frogs sell beer: the effects of beer advertisements on adolescent drinking knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Biennial Conference of the Society for Research in Child Development. Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).
35. Geweke, J. and Martin, D.L. (2002) Pitfalls in drawing policy conclusions from retrospective survey data: the case of advertising and underage smoking. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 25: 111-131.
36. Gordon, R., Hastings, G. and Moodie, C. (2009) Alcohol marketing and young people's drinking: what the evidence base suggests for policy. Journal of Public Affairs (in press). DOI: .
37. Greene, W.H. (2008) Econometric Analysis, 6th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson Prentice-Hall.
38. Grube, J.W. (2004) Alcohol in the media: drinking portrayals, alcohol advertising, and alcohol consumption among youth. In R.J. Bonnie and M.E. O'Connell (eds), Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility (pp. 597-624). Washington, DC National Academies Press.
39. Grube, J.W. and Wallack, L. (1994) Television beer advertising and drinking knowledge, beliefs, and intentions among schoolchildren. American Journal of Public Health 84: 254-259.
40. Halpern, S.D. and Berlin, J.A. (2005) Beyond conventional publication bias: other determinants of data suppression. In H.R. Rothstein, A.J. Sutton and M. Borenstein (eds), Publication Bias in Meta-analysis - Prevention, Assessment and Adjustments (pp. 303-317). Chichester Wiley.
41. Hanewinkel, R. and Sargent, J.D. (2009) Longitudinal study of exposure to entertainment media and alcohol use among German adolescents. Pediatrics 123: 989-995.
42. Hanewinkel, R., Morgenstern, M., Tanski, S.E. and Sargent, J.D. (2008) Longitudinal study of parental movie restriction on teen smoking and drinking in Germany. Addiction 103: 1722-1730.
43. Hastings, G., Anderson, S., Cooke, E. and Gordon, R. (2005) Alcohol marketing and young people's drinking: a review of the research. Journal of Public Health Policy 26: 296-311.
44. Heckman, J.J., Flyer, F. and Loughlin, C. (2008) An assessment of causal inference in smoking initiation research and a framework for future research. Economic Inquiry 46: 37-44.
45. Henriksen, L., Feighery, E.C., Schleicher, N.C. and Fortmann, S.P. (2008) Receptivity to alcohol marketing predicts initiation of alcohol use. Journal of Adolescent Health 42: 28-35.
46. Ioannidis, J.P.A. (2005) Contradicted and initially stronger effects in highly cited clinical research. Journal of the American Medical Association 294: 218-228.
47. Ioannidis, J.P.A. and Trikalinos, T.A. (2007) The appropriateness of asymmetry tests for publication bias in meta-analysis: a large survey. Canadian Medical Association Journal 176: 1091-1096.
48. Jernigan, D.H. (2009) The global alcohol industry: an overview. Addiction 104 (Suppl 1): 6-12.
49. Macaskill, P., Walter, S.D. and Irwig, L. (2001) A comparison of methods to detect publication bias in meta-analysis. Statistics in Medicine 20: 641-654.
50. Martin, S.E., Snyder, L.B., Hamilton, M., Fleming-Milici, F., Slater, M.D., Stacy, A., Chen, M.-J. and Grube, J.W. (2002) Alcohol advertising and youth. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 26: 900-906.
51. McClure, A.C., Dal Cin, S., Gibson, J. and Sargent, J.D. (2006) Ownership of alcohol-branded merchandise and initiation of teen drinking. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 30: 277-283.
52. McClure, A.C., Stoolmiller, M., Tanski, S.E. and Worth, K.A. (2009) Alcohol-branded merchandise and its association with drinking attitudes and outcomes in US adolescents. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 163: 211-217.
53. Moreno, S.G., Sutton, A.J., Ades, A.E., Stanley, T.D., Abrams, K.R., Peters, J.L. and Cooper, N.J. (2009a) Assessment of regression-based methods to adjust for publication bias through a comprehensive simulation study. BMC Medical Research Methodology 9: 2. Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).
54. Moreno, S.G., Sutton, A.J., Turner, E.H., Abrams, K.R., Cooper, N.J., Palmer, T.M. and Ades, A.E. (2009b) Novel methods to deal with publication biases: secondary analysis of antidepressant trials in the FDA trial registry database and related journal publications. British Medical Journal 339: b2981, in press. DOI: .
55. Murtaugh, P.A. (2002) Journal quality, effect size, and publication bias in meta-analysis. Ecology 83: 1162-1166.
56. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (2000) Alcohol advertising: what are the effects? In 10th Special Report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and Health (pp. 412-426). Washington, DC NIAAA.
57. National Research Council, Institute of Medicine (2004) Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington, DC National Academies Press.
58. Nelson, J.P. (2001) Alcohol advertising and advertising bans: a survey of research methods, results, and policy implications. In M.R. Baye and J.P. Nelson (eds), Advances in Applied Microeconomics: Advertising and Differentiated Products (pp. 239-295). Amsterdam JAI Press.
59. Nelson, J.P. (2008) How similar are youth and adult alcohol behaviors? Panel results for excise taxes and outlet density. Atlantic Economic Journal 36: 89-104.
60. Nelson, J.P. (2010a) Alcohol advertising bans, consumption and control policies in seventeen OECD countries, 1975-2000. Applied Economics 42: 803-823.
61. Nelson, J.P. (2010b) What is learned from longitudinal studies of advertising and youth drinking and smoking? A critical assessment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 7: 870-926.
62. Nelson, J.P. and Kennedy, P.E. (2009) The use (and abuse) of meta-analysis in environmental and natural resource economics: an assessment. Environmental and Resource Economics 42: 345-377.
63. Nunez-Smith, M., Wolf, E., Huang, H.M., Chen, P.G., Lee, L., Emanuel, E.J. and Gross, C.P. (2008) Media and child and adolescent health: a systematic review. Common Sense Media. Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).
64. Ostroff, J. and Jernigan, D.H. (2007) Monitoring youth exposure to alcohol advertising in magazines. Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).
65. Pasch, K.E., Komro, K.A., Perry, C.L., Hearst, M.O. and Farbakhsh, K. (2007) Outdoor alcohol advertising near schools: what does it advertise and how is it related to intentions and use of alcohol among young adolescents Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 68: 587-596.
66. Paschall, M.J., Grube, J.W. and Kypri, K. (2009) Alcohol control policies and alcohol consumption by youth: a multi-national study. Addiction 104: 1849-1855.
67. Prasad, K., Jaeschke, R., Wyer, P., Keitz, P. and Guyatt, G. (2008) Tips for teachers of evidence-based medicine: understanding odds ratios and their relationship to risk ratios. Journal of General Internal Medicine 23: 635-640.
68. Roberts, C.J. and Stanley, T.D. (eds) (2005) Meta-regression Analysis: Issues of Publication Bias in Economics. Oxford Blackwell.
69. Robinson, T.N., Chen, H.L. and Killen, J.D. (1998) Television and music video exposure and risk of adolescent alcohol use. Pediatrics 102: 54-59.
70. Rothstein, H.R., Sutton, A.J. and Borenstein, M. (2005) Publication bias in meta-analysis. In H.R. Rothstein, A.J. Sutton and M. Borenstein (eds), Publication Bias in Meta-analysis - Prevention, Assessment and Adjustment (pp. 1-7). Chichester Wiley.
71. Saffer, H. and Dave, D. (2006) Alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption by adolescents. Health Economics 15: 617-637.
72. Sargent, J.D., Wills, T.A., Stoolmiller, M., Gibson, J. and Gibbons, F.X. (2006) Alcohol use in motion pictures and its relation with early-onset teen drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 67: 54-65.
73. Siegel, M., King, C., Ostroff, J., Ross, C., Dixon, K. and Jernigan, D.H. (2008) Comment - alcohol advertising in magazines and youth readership: are youths disproportionately exposed Contemporary Economic Policy 26: 482-492.
74. Smith, L.A. and Foxcroft, D.R. (2009) The effect of alcohol advertising, marketing and portrayal on drinking behaviour in young people: systematic review of prospective cohort studies. BMC Public Health 9: 51-73. Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).
75. Song, F., Eastwood, A.J., Gilbody, S., Duley, L. and Sutton, A.J. (2000) Publication and related biases. Health Technology Assessment 4: 1-115. Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).
76. Stacy, A.W., Zogg, J.B., Unger, J.B. and Dent, C.W. (2004) Exposure to televised alcohol ads and subsequent adolescent alcohol use. American Journal of Health Behavior 28: 498-509.
77. Stanley, T.D. (2005) Beyond publication bias. Journal of Economic Surveys 19: 309-345.
78. Stanley, T.D. (2008) Meta-regression methods for detecting and estimating empirical effects in the presence of publication selection. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 70: 103-127.
79. Stanley, T.D. and Doucouliagos, H. (2009) Picture this: a simple graph that reveals much ado about research. Journal of Economic Surveys 24: 170-191.
80. Sterne, J.A.C. and Egger, M. (2005) Regression methods to detect publication and other bias in meta-analysis. In H.R. Rothstein, A.J. Sutton and M. Borenstein (eds), Publication Bias in Meta-analysis - Prevention, Assessment and Adjustments (pp. 99-110). Chichester Wiley.
81. Strasburger, V.C. (2002) Alcohol advertising and adolescents. Pediatric Clinics of North America 49: 353-376.
82. Sutton, A.J., Abrams, K.R., Jones, D.R. and Song, F. (2000) Methods for Meta-analysis in Medical Research. Chichester Wiley.
83. Wills, T.A., Sargent, J.D., Gibbons, F.X., Gibbons, F.X., Gerrard, M. and Stoolmiller, M. (2009) Movie exposure to alcohol cues and adolescent alcohol problems: a longitudinal analysis in a national sample. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 23: 23-35.
84. World Health Organization (1999) Global Status Report on Alcohol. Geneva WHO.
85. Young, N.S., Ioannidis, J.P.A. and Al-Ubaydli, O. (2008) Why current publication practices may distort science - the market for exchange of scientific information: the winner's curse, artificial scarcity, and uncertainty in biomedical publication. PLoS Medicine: October. Available at (last accessed 15 March 2010).