💶🚬 Higher tobacco prices: an effective but socially unequal tool, especially for the most deprived smokers. Use these data to focus cessation support where price hurts most. #Tabac #InégalitésSociales
🔍💡 When the pack reaches 10 €, motivation rises… but not for everyone. Use these findings to target cessation support and avoid leaving the poorest smokers alone with the price signal. #PréventionTabac #pratiquesensante🔍 How a non‑French practitioner can use it
As evidence to support taxation in national or local advocacy: you can cite it alongside other international references to show that higher prices reduce smoking and particularly motivate lower‑income smokers, while insisting on the need for parallel cessation support to avoid worsening financial stress.
As a template for monitoring: it offers concrete questions, indicators (opinion on taxes, price‑related motivation to quit, reasons for stopping) and analytic choices (logistic regression, stratification by income and education) that you can reuse in your own surveys.
As a comparative benchmark: you can compare your own prevalence, price levels, and socio‑economic gradients with those reported here to see whether your context behaves similarly or differently, and adjust interventions accordingly.
Source : 📒 Augmentation du prix du tabac : opinion et motivation à l’arrêt des fumeurs français en 2022
📜🔗LIEN
1. ANALYTICAL SUMMARY
Context, price policies and inequalities
The article analyses changes in opinion among 18–75-year-olds regarding tobacco tax increases and the motivation to quit that they generate, based on a national telephone survey conducted in 2022 among 3,229 adults living in mainland France, including Corsica. It is set against a backdrop of sharp price increases between 2017 and 2020 within the National Tobacco Control Programme (aiming for a 10 € pack), followed by quasi-stagnation of prices between 2020 and 2022, in a context of COVID-19 crisis and increased economic pressure on low-income households. Around half of the population consider tax increases justified, but acceptability varies strongly by smoking status, education and income, with non-smokers and the better-off more supportive. The study also shows that price has become, after health, the second most frequently cited reason for quitting among current and recent ex-smokers, with a marked rise compared with 2010 in a context where pack price has almost doubled.
Operational contributions for practitioners
The article provides precise indicators on the share of smokers motivated to quit by price increases (about one third in 2022) and highlights that this motivation is more frequent among low-income smokers and occasional smokers. It documents the decline, compared with 2018, in the proportion of smokers who consider tax increases justified and those who say price motivates them, which argues for coupling any price policy with visible reinforcement of cessation support. Multivariate analyses give practitioners keys to identify profiles more sensitive to price (women, low-income smokers, occasional smokers) and prioritise them for tailored support (cessation clinics, nicotine replacement, intensive counselling). The article also underlines the need for comprehensive tobacco control policies combining taxation, social inequality reduction, intensive cessation support and reflection on European price harmonisation to limit cross-border purchasing.
2. KEY POINTS OF THE DOCUMENT
In 2022, 48.8% of 18–75-year-olds considered tobacco tax increases justified, a proportion globally stable compared with 2018, with large differences by smoking status (about 19% among daily smokers versus 64% among never-smokers). (pp.106–110)
About one third of smokers (33.9%) reported that price increases motivate them to quit smoking, but this share has significantly decreased since 2018 (43.6%), mainly due to a drop in those “rather motivated”, reflecting a less dynamic price policy in the last two years. (pp.110–111)
One third of ex-smokers who quit within the past five years (34.2%) said price increases motivated them to quit, and price became in 2022 the second most cited reason for quitting, after health and before social environment, with 39% mentioning it as a first or second reason. (pp.111–112)
Multivariate analyses show that the probability of considering tax increases justified is higher among 55–75-year-olds, those with education above the baccalauréat, those in the highest income tercile, and non-smokers or ex-smokers, while it is clearly lower among daily smokers. (Table 1, pp.110–111)
Among smokers, motivation to quit due to price is more frequent among women, low-income smokers and occasional smokers (OR around 2 compared with heavy smokers), underlining a potential to reduce social inequalities if these groups receive stronger cessation support. (Table 2, pp.111–112)
3. ACTIONABLE PATHWAYS FOR LOCAL ACTORS
Build cessation interventions specifically targeting low-income smokers, based on evidence that they are more often motivated by price but face more barriers to actual quit attempts, systematically coupling price increases with easier access to treatment and specialised counselling. (pp.111–113)
Use the study’s data to adapt prevention messages by smoking status: cost and savings arguments for disadvantaged smokers, and stronger health and second-hand smoke messaging for more advantaged groups and non-smokers who are more supportive of taxation. (pp.109–112)
Systematically bring price into the discussion in primary care, maternal and child health services, addiction services, hospital clinics and social structures by asking open questions on reasons for quitting (health, price, family) to identify those for whom cost is central and offer practical help (NRT, counselling, referrals). (pp.111–112)
Strengthen local and regional advocacy for continuous and predictable price policies, using data showing that price stabilisation between 2020 and 2022 likely reduced motivation to quit among smokers, while keeping social inequality reduction at the core. (pp.108–113)
Implement or reinforce intensive cessation support for socio-economically disadvantaged smokers (community-based support, health mediators, free or very low-cost options, partnership with social services) to prevent price increases from becoming only a financial burden without more successful quits. (pp.112–113)
🔍➕ Pour plus d'informations, voir les articles référencés par "Pratiques en Santé" sur le thème des politiques nationales ➡️🔗