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The PPACTE survey on the economic aspects of smoking in

Europe

Silvano GallusDepartment of Epidemiology

Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan

Barcelona, 5 July 2012

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European survey

• Within WP2 of the PPACTE project, in 2010 a face-to-face European survey on smoking has been conducted in 18 European countries.

• Sample size for each country: around 1,000 individuals, representative of the population aged 15 years or over.

• A total of 18,056 subjects (8,653 men and 9,403 women) were enrolled.

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1. Albania [AL]2. Austria [AU]3. Bulgaria [BG]4. Croatia [HR]5. Czech Republic [CZ]6. Finland [FI]7. France [FR]8. Greece [EL]9. Hungary [HU]10. Ireland [IE]11. Italy [IT]12. Latvia [LV]13. Poland [PO]14. Portugal [PT]15. Romania [RO]16. Spain [ES]17. Sweden [SE]18. England [UK]

European countries

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Objectives

Among the main objectives of the survey in various European countries there was the evaluation of:

• Cigarette purchasing patterns and extent of tax evasion;

• Attitudes towards increasing in price;

• Behaviours towards fiscal policy.

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Cigarette purchasing pattern

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Tax evasion score (TES)

• To validate self-reported information on smuggling, smokers were asked to show their latest purchased pack of cigarettes. Interviewers collected information on health warning and tax stamp.

• TES smokers were those with at least one of the following characteristics:

1. Self-reported smuggling2. Inappropriate health warning3. Inappropriate tax stamp 4. Extremely low price

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Tax evasion score (TES)The overall proportion of TES was 7.5%. The highest prevalence was observed in Latvia (38.8%), followed by Bulgaria (24.1%) and Sweden (19.4%). The countries with the lowest prevalence of TES were France (2.6%), Greece (2.1%) and Portugal (0.0%).

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• Overall, tobacco tax evasion is less than 8%.

• Tax evasion more frequently affects less educated subjects (OR=1.96), compared to more educated ones.

• Evaders more frequently live in countries with a land or sea border with Ukraine, Russia, Moldova or Belarus (OR=3.22).

• This confirms that the supply of the illicit cigarettes is an important factor which contributes to tax evasion.

Tax evasion score (TES)

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Attitudes towards an increase in cigarette price by 5 or 20%

Increase by 5% Increase by 20%

Individuals (%) moderately to strongly in favour of an increase in price once revenues were allocated to support smoking cessation

measures

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Smoking behaviour assuming a 20% increase in prices

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Conclusions

• In Europe, the extent of illicit trade for cigarettes likely ranges between 4% (self-reported) and 8% (validated with objective information).

• Around 80% [70%] of non smokers and 50% [40%] of smokers support an increase in price by 5% [20%].

• Assuming a 20% increase in price, 14% of current smokers would quit, 31% would reduce consumption, 22% would switch to cigarettes with lower prices and 34% would not change their habit.

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The project ‘Pricing Policies and Control of Tobacco in Europe (PPACTE)’ is partly funded by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme Grant Agreement HEALTH-F2-2009-

223323

Silvano GALLUS, Alessandra LUGO, Carlo LA VECCHIA, Paolo BOFFETTA, Frank J CHALOUPKA, Paolo COLOMBO, Laura CURRIE, Esteve FERNANDEZ, Colin FISCHBACHER, Anna

GILMORE, Fiona GODFREY, Luk JOOSSENS, Maria E LEON, David T LEVY, Gunnar ROSENQVIST, Hana ROSS, Joy

TOWNSEND, Luke CLANCY. PPACTE WP2: European survey on smoking. 2012.

Thank you for your attention!

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Methods

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Smoking prevalenceOverall, 56.8% of 18,056 participants described themselves as never smokers, 16.0% as ex-smokers and 27.2% as current smokers (24.9% daily and 2.3% occasional; 30.6% of men and 24.1% of women).