The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study

OBJECTIVES: Cigarette price increases reduce smoking prevalence but as a tobacco control policy are undermined by the availability of lower cost alternatives such as hand-rolling tobacco. The aim of this descriptive study is to explore time trends in the price of manufactured cigarettes and hand-rol...

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Main Authors: Rothwell, Lucas, Britton, John, Bogdanovica, Ilze
Format: Article
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32043/
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author Rothwell, Lucas
Britton, John
Bogdanovica, Ilze
author_facet Rothwell, Lucas
Britton, John
Bogdanovica, Ilze
author_sort Rothwell, Lucas
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description OBJECTIVES: Cigarette price increases reduce smoking prevalence but as a tobacco control policy are undermined by the availability of lower cost alternatives such as hand-rolling tobacco. The aim of this descriptive study is to explore time trends in the price of manufactured cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco, and in the numbers of people who smoke these products, over recent years in the UK. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: UK. OUTCOME MEASURES: Trends in the most popular price category (MPPC) data for cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco from 1983 to 2012 adjusted for inflation using the Retail Price Index, and trends in smoking prevalence and the proportion of smokers using hand-rolling tobacco from 1974 to 2010. RESULTS: After adjustment for inflation, there was an increase in prices of manufactured cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco between 1983 and 2012. Between 1974 and 2010, the prevalence of smoking fell from 45% to 20%, and the estimated total number of smokers from 25.3 to 12.4 million. However the number of people smoking hand-rolling tobacco increased from 1.4 to 3.2 million, and MPPC cigarette price was strongly correlated with number of people smoking hand-rolling tobacco. CONCLUSIONS: Although the ecological study design precludes conclusions on causality, the association between increases in manufactured cigarette price and the number of people smoking hand-rolling tobacco suggests that the lower cost of smoking hand-rolling tobacco encourages downtrading when cigarette prices rise. The magnitude of this association indicates that the lower cost of hand-rolling tobacco seriously undermines the use of price as a tobacco control measure.
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spelling nottingham-320432020-05-04T17:10:42Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32043/ The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study Rothwell, Lucas Britton, John Bogdanovica, Ilze OBJECTIVES: Cigarette price increases reduce smoking prevalence but as a tobacco control policy are undermined by the availability of lower cost alternatives such as hand-rolling tobacco. The aim of this descriptive study is to explore time trends in the price of manufactured cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco, and in the numbers of people who smoke these products, over recent years in the UK. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: UK. OUTCOME MEASURES: Trends in the most popular price category (MPPC) data for cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco from 1983 to 2012 adjusted for inflation using the Retail Price Index, and trends in smoking prevalence and the proportion of smokers using hand-rolling tobacco from 1974 to 2010. RESULTS: After adjustment for inflation, there was an increase in prices of manufactured cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco between 1983 and 2012. Between 1974 and 2010, the prevalence of smoking fell from 45% to 20%, and the estimated total number of smokers from 25.3 to 12.4 million. However the number of people smoking hand-rolling tobacco increased from 1.4 to 3.2 million, and MPPC cigarette price was strongly correlated with number of people smoking hand-rolling tobacco. CONCLUSIONS: Although the ecological study design precludes conclusions on causality, the association between increases in manufactured cigarette price and the number of people smoking hand-rolling tobacco suggests that the lower cost of smoking hand-rolling tobacco encourages downtrading when cigarette prices rise. The magnitude of this association indicates that the lower cost of hand-rolling tobacco seriously undermines the use of price as a tobacco control measure. BMJ Publishing Group 2015-06-15 Article PeerReviewed Rothwell, Lucas, Britton, John and Bogdanovica, Ilze (2015) The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study. BMJ Open, 5 (6). e007697. ISSN 2044-6055 cigarette prices hand rolling tobacco prices smoking prevalence http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4480014/ doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007697 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007697
spellingShingle cigarette prices
hand rolling tobacco prices
smoking prevalence
Rothwell, Lucas
Britton, John
Bogdanovica, Ilze
The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study
title The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study
title_full The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study
title_fullStr The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study
title_full_unstemmed The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study
title_short The relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK: an ecological study
title_sort relation between cigarette price and hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the uk: an ecological study
topic cigarette prices
hand rolling tobacco prices
smoking prevalence
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32043/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32043/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32043/