Association Between Cigarette Price and Infant Mortality

In an effort to reduce smoking rates governments often increase the taxation levied on cigarettes. Previous research has shown that this is an effective strategy, including improvements in child health outcomes. However, tobacco companies often use differential pricing strategies to move the increased taxation on to their premium cigarettes. This lessens the effectiveness of increased taxes as it allows people to switch to the cheaper cigarettes instead. Researchers from Imperial College London set out to assess any associations between price rises, differential pricing (using data on the minimum and median cigarette prices) and infant mortality across 23 European countries.[1] This longitudinal study looked at more than 53.7m live births over a period of ten years. During this time the authors found that a median increase of €1 per pack of cigarettes was associated with 0.23 fewer deaths per 1000 live births in the year of the price hike (95% CI, -0.37 to -0.09), and a decline of 0.16 deaths per 1000 live births in the subsequent year (95% CI, -0.30 to -0.03). Using a counterfactual scenario, the authors estimated that, overall, cigarette price increases were associated with 9,208 fewer infant deaths (i.e. if cigarette prices had remained unchanged then there would have been 9,208 more deaths). Analysis of the price differentials showed that a 10% increase in the differential between the minimum and median priced cigarettes was associated with 0.07 more deaths per 1,000 live births the following year. Further, had there been no cost differential, they estimated that 3,195 infant deaths could have been avoided.

So, while increasing cigarette taxation can have a positive effect, there needs to be more of an effort to try to eliminate budget cigarettes. This is especially true in low-income countries where price differentials tend to be significantly higher than in high-income countries.

— Peter Chilton, Research Fellow

Reference:

1. Filippidis FT, Laverty AA, Hone T, Been JV, Millett C. Association of Cigarette Price Differentials With Infant Mortality in 23 European Union Countries. JAMA Pediatr. 2017.