Did Cigarette Vouchers Increase Female Smokers in China?
Background
From 1960 to 1980, a voucher was required to purchase cigarettes in China. The Chinese government issued vouchers to ration cigarettes, without informing its citizens that smoking was unhealthy. These vouchers were available to all adults, and allowed them to purchase specified numbers of cigarettes. As a result, a number of nonsmokers started smoking during the voucher period.
Methods
This study included 229 female and 1165 male smokers from the China Health and Nutrition Survey 1989–2006, which provides the year in which each respondent began smoking. The percentages of male and female smokers who started smoking during the voucher period were compared using the chi-square test. Logistic regression analysis was used to study the relative risk of smoking initiation by women during the voucher period, while adjusting for confounding variables.
Results
During the voucher period, 46% of female smokers and 39% of male smokers started smoking (p=0.05). Women who did not have a regular job or were less educated were more likely to start smoking. The relative risk of female smokers to have initiated smoking during the voucher period was 4.75, with a p<0.01 in the logistic regression.
Conclusions
China's policy of issuing vouchers to ration tobacco consumption had the unintended consequence of encouraging smoking, particularly among women. Issuing cigarette vouchers to every adult, combined with the inexpensive prices of cigarettes, led more women to initiate smoking. Women with low SES were particularly likely to initiate smoking.
aDepartment of Health Systems, Management, and Policy, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado
bDepartment of Economics and Department of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Hai Fang, PhD, MPH, Department of Health Systems, Management, and Policy, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Denver, 13001 E. 17th Avenue, 3rd Floor Campus Box B119, Aurora CO 80045
ABSTRACT