Birkett Nicholas J
Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine and the R.S. McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
PLoS One. 2014 Apr 3;9(4):e93412. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093412. eCollection 2014.
Increases in taxation can contribute to smoking control. In the early 1990's, tobacco smuggling rates in Canada increased dramatically. Governments responded with a substantial reduction in taxes on tobacco products. This study examines the impact of these tax changes on smoking in youth in Canada.
Data on smoking from three consecutive cycles of the Canadian Community Health Surveys were combined and analyzed using a reconstructed cohort approach. Age, sex and calendar year specific rates of smoking experimentation and the onset of daily smoking were estimated for youth. Estimates apply to the entire Canadian population.
There was a strong increase in smoking in youth in the years following the reduction in tobacco taxes. The increase was stronger in women. The rates returned to pre-1990 rates by about 2002. The number of excess daily smokers for people born between 1977 and 1985 that can be linked to the taxation reduction is about 190,000.
There is strong evidence that reduction of tobacco taxes to combat smuggling had an adverse impact on smoking rates in youth.
提高税收有助于控烟。在20世纪90年代初，加拿大的烟草走私率急剧上升。政府的应对措施是大幅降低烟草产品税。本研究考察了这些税收变化对加拿大青少年吸烟情况的影响。
利用重构队列法，对加拿大社区健康调查连续三个周期的吸烟数据进行合并与分析。估算了青少年吸烟尝试率以及开始每日吸烟的年龄、性别和历年特定率。估算适用于全体加拿大人口。
烟草税降低后的几年里，青少年吸烟率大幅上升。女性的上升幅度更大。到2002年左右，吸烟率恢复到1990年之前的水平。1977年至1985年出生的人群中，与税收降低相关的每日吸烟过量人数约为19万。
有充分证据表明，为打击走私而降低烟草税对青少年吸烟率产生了不利影响。
