Tobacco foes attack ads that target women, minorities, teens and the poor

Article Abstract:

Antismoking advocates for minors, minorities, women and poor people have been reacting to what they believe to be advertising targeted at these and other demographic groups. In the view of the activists, the tobacco industry has redirected its advertising from broad-based ads designed to have wide popular appeal to more focused campaigns. The antismoking lobby has now countered these strategies with a similar mobilization of its own; antismoking campaigns now focus on specific brands, the self image of the smoker, and the way that smoking affects members of a specific group. Believing that a good job has been done in reaching middle-class America, but not the demographic groups most at risk, these activists have turned the style of the tobacco industry's advertising to their own interests. Antismoking initiatives in the black community have begun in response to recent billboards for tobacco and alcohol messages in the inner city, and by proposed, but aborted attempts to market 'Uptown' brand cigarettes, a brand intended to attract urban blacks. Addiction to nicotine is more prevalent among blacks (34 percent) than whites (28 percent) or Hispanics (27 percent), and is an important reason while lung cancer and heart disease are higher in blacks. New controversies are in the making for Dakota cigarettes, which are to be marketed to ''virile females.'' Native Americans, a group also with high rates of addiction, are disturbed with the use of the word 'Dakota', which means friend. Taken together, the emergence of the Dakota and Uptown brands exemplifies the tobacco industry's strategy of demographic targeting to women and minorities. Each year 2.5 million smokers stop smoking because they either quit or die (there are 400,000 annual smoking-related deaths). The replacement smokers are children; the average age of a new smoker is 12.5 years. Present trends show that more girls than boys are taking up smoking, and that fewer women quit than men. Smoking patterns also correlate with education; by the year 2000, only 5 percent of college graduates but 30 percent of high school graduates will be smokers. Brand image appears to be important, and smokers are willing to go to reasonable lengths to obtain their brand. While laws against cigarette advertising are unlikely, more aggressive campaigns to ridicule the images of cigarette advertising, and pressures to break the association between certain brands and sports will continue. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Marketing, Advertising, Political aspects, Smoking and youth, Youth smoking, Tobacco, Cigarettes, Smoking and women, Women smokers

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Physicians hear about incontinence

Article Abstract:

Urinary incontinence is the inability to retain urine due to loss of control of the sphincter that regulates urinary discharge. Urinary incontinence may also result from lesions in the brain and spinal cord. Most patients with urinary incontinence can be treated without the need for adult diapers. Fifty percent of patients can be treated by nonsurgical means, and 90 percent of cases that are treated by surgery are successful, including 75 percent that remain cured after five years. One specialist concluded that 50 percent of patients with urinary incontinence can be completely cured, and 30 percent can be improved. A major problem in the management of urinary incontinence is the lack of communication between the physician and afflicted patient. One study showed that only 30 percent of patients with urinary incontinence had discussed their problem with a physician, and another 30 percent had informed no one. Most patients are embarrassed or fearful of possible serious underlying causes or surgery. Some causes of urinary incontinence include delirium; urinary tract infection; atrophic urethritis (inflammation and wasting away of the urethra); certain drugs, including sedative-hypnotics, loop diuretics, anticholinergics, adrenergic agents, and calcium channel blockers; psychological factors; hormonal imbalances; restricted movement; and stool impaction (overloading of feces in the intestines). New approaches to treating urinary incontinence include: cone-like weights that are inserted into the vagina to improve strength of specific muscles with Kegel exercises; electrical stimulation devices that inhibit impulses which cause involuntary contractions resulting in incontinence; new drugs such as longer-acting forms of oxybutynin chloride, terodiline hydrochloride, and desmopressin acetate; and implants that create resistance on the urethra. However, the most important aspect of managing urinary incontinence is physician awareness and concern about this disorder. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Care and treatment, Causes of, Telecommunications systems, Physician and patient, Physician-patient relations, Urinary incontinence

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Gay, lesbian physicians meet, march, tell Shalala bigotry is health hazard

Article Abstract:

Gay and lesbian physicians discussed different homosexual health care issues with Donna Shalala, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Approximately 1,500 gay and lesbian physicians were in Washington, DC for the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in Apr 1993. Different issues discussed with Shalala included AIDS, substance abuse and teen suicide among gays and lesbians, neglect of gays and lesbians in medical research and lack of federal funding for gay and lesbian medical clinics. Shalala was very supportive of the viewpoints expressed and promised to focus on homosexual health care issues. The American Association of Physicians for Human Rights was in Washington for the march. This organization is committed to ending discrimination against gays and lesbians in medicine. Homophobia is viewed as a disease that reduces the quality of health care provided to gays and lesbians.

Health aspects, Gays, Political activity, Shalala, Donna E., American Association of Physicians for Human Rights

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