Taxation Reduces Social Disparities in Adult Smoking Prevalence
published online 09 February 2009.
Background
The CDC, the WHO, and the World Bank promote increases in the price of cigarettes as an effective and important tobacco-control strategy. This study was designed to assess the extent to which the association between the price of cigarettes and smoking prevalence, as measured monthly, varies by income group.
Methods
Australian population survey data collected monthly from January 1991 to December 2006 were used to estimate Poisson regression models to assess the impact of the price of cigarettes on smoking prevalence across three income groups. Analyses were conducted in 2008.
Results
There was strong evidence that real price and prevalence were negatively associated (p<0.001) and that the association was stronger in lower-income groups (p<0.001). One Australian dollar increase in price was associated with a decline of 2.6%, 0.3%, and 0.2% in the prevalence of smoking among low-, medium-, and high-income groups, respectively.
Conclusions
Increasing the price of cigarettes not only is an effective tobacco-control strategy to lower smoking prevalence in the general population, but also may provide a means of reducing social disparities in smoking.
aDepartment of Health Promotion, Social and Behavioral Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska
bCentre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Melbourne, Australia
cVicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, The Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Mohammad Siahpush, PhD, Department of Health Promotion, Social and Behavioral Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 986075 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha NE 68198-6075
ABSTRACT