• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.235-243
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• 2005

The government continuously increases cigarette price to reduce the smoking rates. Opinions of cigarette makers and Ministry of Health and Welfare on the effect of cigarette price hike are sharply opposed. This dispute is important because there is possibility of additional increase of cigarette price by 500 won. Therefore, as an inquiry into existing studies for the effect of cigarette price hike on tobacco product, namely analysis of the effect of cigarette price hike consumption, we empirically analyzed the effect of cigarette excise tax hike through establishing improved analytic models considering time trend. As a result, it is substantiated that time trend in the effect of cigarette excise tax hike is certainly exist and early impact is heavy. However, the amount of cigarette consumption is recovered to the level of the average in 5 months. Since it is proved that the long term effect of cigarette price hike is immaterial, health authority should reconsider the plan of additional raising cigarette price by 500 won.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.136-146
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• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to estimate the willingness to quit cigarette price among Korean male adults, and to examine the factors affecting the willingness to quit cigarette price. Methods : The data was collected by a random digit dial telephone survey. 702 samples were analyzed by using t-tests, ANOVA and OLS regression analysis. To estimate the willingness to quit cigarette price, smokers were asked dichotomous questions with open-ended follow-up and the starting point of the price was randomized by one of 5 bid prices elicited from a pilot study. Results : The mean of the willingness to quit cigarette price was 4,287 Won per package, which was about 2,000 Won higher than the mean of the actual price the smokers now paid. About 41% of respondents were willing to quit smoking if the price of cigarette would be increased by 3,000 Won, and if the price would be increased by 20,000 Won, all respondents were willing to quit smoking. The factors associated with the willingness to quit cigarette price were the place of residence, the amount of smoking and the degree of exposure to smoking through the mass media. Conclusions : The results showed that to get people to quit smoking, increasing the cigarette price would obviously be effective and much higher prices have a greater effect. Furthermore, to enlarge the effect of increased cigarette prices, providing more cessation programs to small towns, reducing the amount of smoking and decreasing or prohibiting advertisements of cigarettes and smoking in the mass media will be efficient.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.59-68
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the intention of smoking cessation according to the level of cigarette price increase among adolescent smokers and to suggest a reasonable cigarette price to effectively reduce smoking prevalence. Methods: In 2007, subjects were selected from middle and high school students except twelfth graders using a complex sampling design which employs a two-stage cluster sampling method. In total, 1,001 current smokers were included in the study. To investigate the intention of smoking cessation according to the level of cigarette price increase, cumulative percentages of smoking cessation of every smoking-related subgroup were presented under the assumption that cigarette prices increased to 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 or 10,000 won. Non-parametric statistical methods were used to compare the prices at which the subjects intended to quit smoking among the subgroups. Results: More than 50 percent of current smokers intended to quit smoking under the assumption that cigarette prices were doubled to 5,000 won. However, the effect of cigarette prices on smoking cessation was less sensitive when the prices exceeded 5,000 won. In addition, the median of cigarette prices at which the subjects intended to quit smoking was 5,000 won, excluding the subjects who smoked less than a cigarette a day. Conclusion: This study suggests that 5,000 won for one pack of cigarettes is a reasonable price to effectively encourage smoking cessation, considering the price elasticity. Therefore, this finding may be helpful in establishing a new cigarette price policy for anti-smoking.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.125-137
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• 2011

Objectives: This paper estimates willingness to quit smoking(WQS) cigarette price among Korean adults and examines the factors related to WQS price. Methods: Data on 799 participants in a random dial telephone survey with questions designed based on Contingent Valuation Method were analyzed by conducting t-test, ${\chi}^2$ test, and OLS. Results: The median and the mean of the distribution of WQS prices were 3,000 won and 3,862 won, respectively. Age, household income, the amount of smoking, and the length of smoking period were related to WQS prices. Conclusions: The results show that increase in cigarette price could be an effective policy tool to make smokers quit smoking when the increase in cigarette prices is substantial enough to be over WQS prices. This implies that with its effect on low-income smokers to consider quitting smoking or reducing the amount of smoking, increase in cigarette price can be income-progressive in the long run by reducing the amount of expenditure spent on cigarette purchase.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.371-380
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• 2007

Objectives: To determine the impact of cigarette prices on the decision to initiate and quit smoking by taking into account the interdependence of smoking and other behavioral risk factors. Methods: The study population consisted of 3,000 male Koreans aged ${\ge}20$. A survey by telephone interview was undertaken to collect information on cigarette price, smoking and other behavioral risk factors. A two-part model was used to examine separately the effect of price on the decision to be a smoker, and on the amount of cigarettes smoked. Results: The overall price elasticity of cigarettes was estimated at -0.66, with a price elasticity of -0.02 for smoking participation and -0.64 for the amount of cigarettes consumed by smokers. The inclusion of other behavioral risk factors reduced the estimated price elasticity for smoking participation substantially, but had no effect on the conditional price elasticity for the quantity of cigarettes smoked. Conclusions: From the public health and financial perspectives, an increase in cigarette price would significantly reduce smoking prevalence as well as cigarette consumption by smokers in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.451-461
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• 2018

This study investigated changes in the youth smoking rate and smoking cessation rates before and after a cigarette price increase in 2015. Specifically, the changes in smoking rate, smoking cessation attempt rate, selection rate and amount of smoking were investigated using primary data pertaining to Korean Youth Risk Behavior obtained from a web-based survey of youth general characteristics, mental health, subjective grade, drinking and smoking related characteristics before and after a cigarette price increase. To accomplish this, 800 middle school and high school students in 9th (2013), 10th (2014), 11th (2015) were surveyed. The current youth smoking rate was slightly decreased from 9.7% in 2013 to 9.2% in 2014, while the smoking rate in 2015 decreased significantly by 15.2% after the cigarette price increased to 7.8%. These results confirmed that increasing cigarette price is very effective at decreasing youth smoking rate, providing motivation to stop smoking and preventing smoking. The prevention of smoking and inducement to stop smoking during adolescence is very important because the majority of teenage smokers continue smoking into their adulthood. In addition to expanding a completely non-smoking area and a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship should be urgently sought, and the effect can be maximized when the WHO FCTC faithfully implements the already-founded treaty.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.64-70
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the raise of cigarette prices by KRW 2,000 at the beginning of 2015 on the change in smoking behavior among male office workers, and to analyze the correlation of various factors including their work behaviors and socio-economic factors with their smoking rate. Methods: In this research, a follow-up observation panel was constituted with 420 smokers as targets from among male office workers at a bank located in Daegu, South Korea. A cross-analysis and ANOVA analysis were carried out in order to examine whether changes in smoking status, amount of smoking, stop-smoking motivation, and reasons for smoking cessation failure after the passage of time since the cigarette price hike were statistically significant. The level of statistical significance was P < 0.05. Results: After the cigarette price hike, among the 420 smokers who were the target of the panel the rate of smoking cessation declined at the time-point of the survey to 15.5%, 12.4%, 8.5%, and 5.7% after one month, three months, six months, and 12 months, respectively. As a result of a follow-up observation of 65 smokers who stopped smoking immediately after the price hike, the actual non-smoking rate declined to 15.5%, 8.3%, 4.4%, and 3.1% after one month, three months, six months, and 12 months, respectively. One (1) year after the cigarette price hike, the non-smoking rate among the 420 smokers reached as low as 3.1% (13 persons). The most important reason for the failure of the attempts to quit smoking was stress for more than 60% of the smokers who attempted to stop. Conclusions: It seems that a powerful anti-smoking policy by the state targeting the nation's workers is necessary. For companies, mediation for workers' job stress can become a strategy for the success of non-smoking attempts. The government seems to require a practical policy to reduce the smoking rate by actively carrying out social, economic, and scientific research to come up with a reduction method for the cigarette hazard, an effective price hike policy, and other non-price policies.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.53-69
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• 1999

In this study. we present a modified rational addiction model which incorporates social-psychological factors. This is done through a utility function which includes social-psychological factors as its component. We apply this model to a cigarette consumption function in Korea using the data from the Korean Household Panel Study(KHPS). The results provide relatively strong support for the rational addiction model. However. the impact of social-psychological factors and the short-run and long-run price elasticities are statistically insignificant.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 2020

Background: In January 2015, South Korea's government raised the cigarette tax, and the retail price of cigarettes abruptly increased by 80% compared to the previous year. This research aimed to determine the effect of this increase on smoking cessation among South Korean smokers. Methods: We analyzed data collected by the 2013-2015 South Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of 15,203 South Koreans over 19 years old using regression analysis. We examined the recent non-smoking period of nonsmoking people, prepared according to the survey, and analyzed the recent smoking cessation ratio. Results: Among smokers, from 2013 to 2014, the smoking cessation rate was 7.2%, and it increased to 9.9% in 2015 after the increase in the cigarette tax. In 2015, the recent smoking cessation rate was higher among people over the age of 60 (odds ratio [OR], 2.67) compared to those between the ages of 40 and 49. The recent smoking cessation rate was higher among people with below elementary education (OR, 2.28) and above university education (OR, 1.94) compared to high school, higher for those with apartments (OR, 1.74) compared to general type residences, and higher among those with a household income in the low-middle quartile (Q2) (OR, 2.32) compared to the highest quartile (Q4). Conclusion: This innovative policy including increase in cigarette prices affected smoking cessation, and its impact varied by sub-group of smokers in South Korea.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2015

Owing to the increase in price of cigarettes in Korea, herbal cigarettes have received increasing attention as a non-smoking aid; however, its safety has hardly been studied. We analyzed some of the toxic components in the mainstream smoke of herbal cigarettes, performed a mutagenicity test on smoke condensates for safety assessment, and compared the results with the corresponding values of a general cigarette with the same tar content. Herbal cigarette "A" was smoked using automatic smoking machine under ISO conditions in a manner similar to general cigarette "T". The tar content measured was higher than that inscribed on the outside of a package. The mainstream smoke of herbal cigarette "A" did not contain detectable levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines and nicotine. Carbon monoxide and benzo(${\alpha}$)pyrene contents in herbal cigarette "A" were higher than those in the general cigarette "T". The phenolic contents such as hydroquinone, resorcinol, and catechol in herbal cigarette "A" were higher than those in the general cigarette "T", but cresol contents in herbal cigarette "A" were lower than those in the general cigarette "T". The content of aromatic amines such as 4-aminobiphenyl in herbal cigarette "A" was higher than that in the general cigarette "T"; however, this difference was not statistically significant. On the other hand, 1-aminonaphthalene, 2-aminonaphthalene, and 3-aminobiphenyl contents in herbal cigarette "A" were lower than those in the general cigarette "T". The smoke condensates of herbal cigarette "A" exhibited a higher mutagenic potential than the condensates from the general cigarette "T" at the same concentration. We concluded that the mainstream smoke of herbal cigarette contains some toxic components, the smoke condensates of herbal cigarettes are mutagenic similar to general cigarette because of combustion products, and that the evaluation of the chemical and biological safety of all types of herbal cigarettes available on the market.