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. 2018 Jan;27(1):58-64.
doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053305. Epub 2017 Jan 30.

Global economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases

Mark Goodchild  1 , Nigar Nargis  2 , Edouard Tursan d'Espaignet  1
Affiliations

Global economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases

Mark Goodchild et al. Tob Control. 2018 Jan.

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: The detrimental impact of smoking on health has been widely documented since the 1960s. Numerous studies have also quantified the economic cost that smoking imposes on society. However, these studies have mostly been in high income countries, with limited documentation from developing countries. The aim of this paper is to measure the economic cost of smoking-attributable diseases in countries throughout the world, including in low- and middle-income settings.

Methods: The Cost of Illness approach is used to estimate the economic cost of smoking attributable-diseases in 2012. Under this approach, economic costs are defined as either 'direct costs' such as hospital fees or 'indirect costs' representing the productivity loss from morbidity and mortality. The same method was applied to 152 countries, which had all the necessary data, representing 97% of the world's smokers.

Findings: The amount of healthcare expenditure due to smoking-attributable diseases totalled purchasing power parity (PPP) $467 billion (US$422 billion) in 2012, or 5.7% of global health expenditure. The total economic cost of smoking (from health expenditures and productivity losses together) totalled PPP $1852 billion (US$1436 billion) in 2012, equivalent in magnitude to 1.8% of the world's annual gross domestic product (GDP). Almost 40% of this cost occurred in developing countries, highlighting the substantial burden these countries suffer.

Conclusions: Smoking imposes a heavy economic burden throughout the world, particularly in Europe and North America, where the tobacco epidemic is most advanced. These findings highlight the urgent need for countries to implement stronger tobacco control measures to address these costs.

Keywords: Economics; Global health; Smoking Caused Disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Smoking-attributable fraction (SAF) for healthcare expenditure and smoking-attributable death (SAD) rate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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MeSH terms