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

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
• /
• v.29 no.3_4
• /
• pp.721-741
• /
• 2011

In this paper we have considered a dynamical mathematical model of the sub-populations of potential smokers (non-smokers), smokers, smokers who temporarily quit smoking, smokers who permanently quit smoking and a class of smoking associated illness by introducing time dependent parameters and distributed time delay to acquire smoking habit. Here, we have established some sufficient conditions on the permanence and extinction of the smoking class in the community by using inequality analytical technique. We have introduced some new threshold values $R_0$ and $R^*$ and further obtained that the smoking class in the community will be permanent when $R_0$ > 1 and the smoking class in the community will be going to extinct when $R^*$ < 1. By Lyapunov functional method, we have also obtained some sufficient conditions for global asymptotic stability of this model. Computer simulations are carried out to explain the analytical findings. The aim of the analysis of this model is to identify the parameters of interest for further study, with a view to informing and assisting policy-maker in targeting prevention and treatment resources for maximum effectiveness.

• The Journal of Health Technology Assessment
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.114-122
• /
• 2018

Objectives: In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the typical anti-smoking advertisement on smoking cessation intention in citizens of Ulsan Metropolitan City. Methods: A total of 700 citizens (600 adults and 100 high school student) participated in face-to-face interviews survey using paper questionnaire. Three anti-smoking advertisements were used in this study; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient video advertisement, tobacco hazard information advertisement, and COPD patient voice advertisement. Each participant randomly evaluated only one of the three non-smoking anti-smoking advertisements. Participants were asked whether they had seen or heard anti-smoking advertisements before and asked whether they understood the advertisement well. They also assessed the effectiveness of non-smokers to maintain smoking cessation and how effective it would be to help smokers quit. Results: Among the three anti-smoking advertisements, 54.8% of participants said that they watched COPD patient video advertisement before. More than 95% of participants said they can understood anti-smoking advertisements. Among the three anti-smoking advertisements, tobacco hazard information advertisement was evaluated to be most effective to maintain non-smokers' smoking cessation (234, 92.5%). Tobacco hazard information advertisement was also evaluated to be most effective to make smokers quit smoking (216, 84.7%). Conclusion: Anti-smoking advertisements have a positive effect on non-smoker's willingness to keep smoking and smokers' willingness to quit smoking. In future studies, it would be meaningful to look at the long-term effects of smoking cessation or to evaluate the effectiveness of the more various anti-smoking advertisements.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.35-49
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study was to analyze variables associated with smoking and selected health behaviors. This study targeted adult men and women over 20 of age. The sample population was drawn from the national sample, and the samples were chosen from the telephone book. A total of 1,500 cases were collected through a telephone based interview survey. As a tool for this study, a structured questionnaire was developed. the variables included self-perceived health status, and selected 7 health behaviors; smoking behavior, physical activities, eating habit, weight control, alcohol consumption, stress management, and cancer exam. The healthy life practice actions of Trans-theoretical model have been classified into five stages. Smokers were more likely than non-smokers to positive attitudes toward smoking and the impact of smoking in this study. This means that smokers's awareness toward the impact of smoking is very week. Smoking behavior was significantly related to other health related behaviors based on the correlation analysis. However, gender, engaging in regular physical activities, moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages, and receiving a cancer examination were the variables that can explain and predict a person's stages of adopting a non-smoking behavior. Self perceived health status was closely related to other health behaviors. Gender, age, and monthly household income were important demographic variables that have significant relationship with the self-perceived health status. Among the health behaviors, regular physical activities and weight control were significant predictable variables. Similar results have been found in the National health and Nutrition examination survey in Korea. As a result of this study, it was found that among the selected health behaviors, engaging in physical activity was an important variable to increase positive sense of health and non-smoking behaviors. Educational and policy level input is needed to increase awareness and provide chances to participate in fitness activities. To those who maintain exercise, the environmental support and diffusion of knowledge information and education data should be strengthened. To change attitudes toward smoking, more in-dept awareness campaign and education should be provided according to people's different behavioral status. In addition, not only diffusing health education data and delivering knowledge information through related programs, but also environmental support system that helps an individual maintain his/her action is required. Such a support system means settlement of the health enhancement base of school, workplace and community should be carried out, and the policy level support and regular programs should be provided and spread to the unit of community.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.47 no.3
• /
• pp.129-135
• /
• 2014

Tobacco use is the most important preventable risk factor for premature death. The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first international public health treaty, came into force in 2005. This paper reviews the present status of tobacco control policies in Korea according to the WHO FCTC recommendations. In Korea, cigarette use is high among adult males (48.2% in 2010), and cigarette prices are the lowest among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries with no tax increases since 2004. Smoke-free policies have shown incremental progress since 1995, but smoking is still permitted in many indoor public places. More than 30% of non-smoking adults and adolescents are exposed to second-hand smoke. Public education on the harmful effects of tobacco is currently insufficient and the current policies have not been adequately evaluated. There is no comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion, or sponsorship in Korea. Cigarette packages have text health warnings on only 30% of the main packaging area, and misleading terms such as "mild" and "light" are permitted. There are nationwide smoking cessation clinics and a Quitline service, but cessation services are not covered by public insurance schemes and there are no national treatment guidelines. The sale of tobacco to minors is prohibited by law, but is poorly enforced. The socioeconomic inequality of smoking prevalence has widened, although the government considers inequality reduction to be a national goal. The tobacco control policies in Korea have faltered recently and priority should be given to the development of comprehensive tobacco control policies.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.127-153
• /
• 2009

There is a growing concern about potential harmful effect of second-hand or environmental tobacco smoking. As a result, smoking bans in workplace become more prevalent worldwide. In Korea, workplace smoking ban policy become more restrictive in 2003 when National health enhancing law was amended. The new law requires all office buildings larger than 3,000 square meters (multi-purpose buildings larger than 2,000 square meters) should be smoke free. Therefore, a lot of indoor office became non smoking area. Previous studies in other counties often found contradicting answers for the effects of workplace smoking ban on smoking behavior. In addition, there was no study in Korea yet that examines the causal impacts of smoking ban on smoking behavior. The situation in Korea might be different from other countries. Using 2001 and 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition surveys which are representative for population in Korea we try to examine the impacts of law change on current smoker and cigarettes smoked per day. The amended law impacted the whole country at the same time and there was a declining trend in smoking rate even before the legislation update. So, the challenge here is to tease out the true impact only. We compare indoor working occupations which are constrained by the law change with outdoor working occupations which are less impacted. Since the data has been collected before (2001) and after (2005) the law change for treated (indoor working occupations) and control (outdoor working occupations) groups we will use difference in difference method. We restrict our sample to working age (between 20 and 65) since these are the relevant population by the workplace smoking ban policy. We also restrict the sample to indoor occupations (executive or administrative and administrative support) and outdoor occupations (sales and low skilled worker) after dropping unemployed and someone working for military since it is not clear whether these occupations are treated group or control group. This classification was supported when we examined the answers for workplace smoking ban policy existing only in 2005 survey. Sixty eight percent of indoor occupations reported having an office smoking ban policy compared to forty percent of outdoor occupation answering workplace smoking ban policy. The estimated impacts on current smoker are 4.1 percentage point decline and cigarettes per day show statistically significant decline of 2.5 cigarettes per day. Taking into account consumption of average sixteen cigarettes per day among smokers it is sixteen percent decline in smoking rate which is substantial. We tested robustness using the same sample across two surveys and also using tobit model. Our results are robust against both concerns. It is possible that our measure of treated and control group have measurement error which will lead to attenuation bias. However, we are finding statistically significant impacts which might be a lower bound of the true estimates. The magnitude of our finding is not much different from previous finding of significant impacts. For cigarettes per day previous estimates varied from 1.37 to 3.9 and for current smoker it showed between 1%p and 7.8%p.

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

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.172-178
• /
• 2010

Purpose: We examined the relationship between the health-related issues of elderly women and bone density and identified specific factors that affect the prevalence of osteoporosis to provide basic data for developing a health care program on osteoporosis prevention. Methods: This study is a secondary data analysis of 118,903 66-yr-old women who received a health examination conducted by the National Health Insurance Corporation in 2008. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors affecting the prevalence of osteoporosis. Results: The prevalence of osteoporosis was 46.8%, whereas the prevalence of osteopenia was 38.4% among elderly women in this study. Statistically significant differences were observed between the osteoporosis and non-osteoporosis group in terms of smoking (p<.001), exercise (p<.001), obesity (p<.001), waist circumference (p<.001), depression (p<.001), falling experience (p<.05), and the cognitive function risk (p<.05). Based on the multiple logistic regression results, the risk for osteoporosis was high in those who were under-weight, smoked, or were depressed. In contrast, moderate or high level obesity showed a negative relationship with osteoporosis. Conclusion: The prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis was 85.2%. Therefore, there is a need to develop health care programs pertaining to osteoporosis intervention and prevention for elderly women. Because smoking, non-exercise, and obesity are main osteoporosis risk factors, it is highly recommended that some sound practical life programs and psychological support programs be considered for this population.

• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.195-213
• /
• 2006

Follow-up surveys with 700 smoking male adults and 300 nonsmoking male adults were performed before 20-days and after one month, three months and six months since government's price increase enforcement. 572 smokers among 700 and 198 non-smokers among 300 were remained and followed up till the end of the surveys. The cessation rate of smokers are 6.6%(after one month), 10.3%(after three months) and 11.0%(after six months). Smoking cessation ratio of new smoking quilters who considered that price increase as a motive of their giving-up smoking are 76.3%, 81.3% and 65.1%. The smokers estimates of short-run price elasticities from follow-up surveys are -0.6853, -0.6230 and -0.5482 at each survey period. Including non-smokers, estimates of short-run price elasticities from follow-up surveys are -0.3920, -0.3739 and -0.3481 at each survey period. The effect of demand decrease caused by KR\500 price increase stayed with little difference for six months because price elasticities between each survey period showed no much change. Effectiveness and validity of tobacco control by price increase was confirmed through the survey results. Therefore if the government want to attain long term strategic goal to decrease general smoking rate among male adult smokers by 30%, the strong smoking prohibition policy, just like the price increase of December 2004, should be continuously driven.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.183-190
• /
• 2001

Objective : To estimate the annual economic costs attributable to cigarette smoking in Korea. Methods : The costs were classified as being direct medical and non-medical costs, indirect costs and others. We focused on those costs related that are incurred in the treatment of selected diseases (cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and cancers), which have been proven to be caused by smoking. In addition to the basic costs of treatment, the additional amount of costs occurred due to smoking was obtained by computing the population attributable risk (PAR%) caused by smoking. To compute the PAR%, relative risks of smoking to the number of outpatient visits, hospitalizations, and the death were estimated using the Cox proportional hazard model, respectively. Our major data source was the 'Korea Medical Insurance Corporation (KMIC) cohort study,' which was composed of a total of 115,682 male and 67,932 female beneficiaries who had complete records of their smoking histories in the year of 1992. Results : The annual costs that could be attributable to smoking were estimated to be in the range of 2,847,500 million Won to 3,959,100 million Won. The maximum estimate of 3,959,100 million Won includes 233,100 million Won for medical costs, 5,100 million Won for transportation costs, 27,600 million Won for care giver's economic costs, 69,100 million Won in productivity loss, 3,435,000 million Won lost because of premature death, 172,100 million Won in costs resulting from passive smoke inhalation and 17,100 million Won for costs that resulted from fires that were caused by careless smoking. Conclusion : Our study confirms that the magnitude of the economic burden of smoking to Korean society is substantial. Therefore, this study provides strong evidence that there is a strong need for a national policy of tobacco control in Korea.