Patterns of smoking before and after the 2002 tobacco tax reform in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Hsiao-Yao Chuang, 莊小瑤
• Other Authors: Tung-Liang Chiang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/92051587235502171518

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 衛生政策與管理研究所 === 92 === Objective: When Taiwan entered the WTO on January 1 of 2002, the tobacco tax reform was put into practice. The new tax scheme stopped levying the cigarette monopolistic profit, and since then, Taiwan’s cigarette market has not been monopolistic. Under the new tax scheme, both local and foreign cigarettes per pack are levied NT$ 11.8 excise cigarette tax, 5％ business tax and NT$ 5 Health and Welfare Tax. Imported cigarettes are additionally levied a tariff tax of 27％. On average, cigarette prices rose by 20.6％ after the tax reform. This study aims to explore the change in smoking patterns after the tobacco tax reform in Taiwan. Design: Secondary data analysis study. Data were obtained from” Taiwan national health interview survey, 2001 “and “Taiwan national health knowledge, attitude and practice interview survey, 2002 “. Both samples were nation-wide representative of Taiwan. Participants: The participants of this study were people aged 15 and older in Taiwan. Excluding proxy interviews, the total number of participants came to 16,602 in 2001 and 26,064 in 2002. Results: The crude prevalence of male smokers was 44.7％ in 2001 and 48.6％ in 2002, and that of female smokers was 4.1％ and 5.8％ respectively. Age-adjusted rates in male smokers was 45.0％ in 2001 and 48.4％ in 2002, and 4.1％ and 5.8％ respectively in female smokers. After controlling for age, marital status, education, income and occupational variables, there was a statistically significant increase in smoking prevalence both for males and females (P < 0.001). The average number of cigarettes smoked per month for male smokers was 485 in 2002 and 506 in 2002, that for female smokers was 300 and 286 respectively. After controlling for age, marital status, education, income and occupational variables, the increase of cigarettes consumption for male smokers reached was statistically significant (P < 0.001), but not for female smokers. Conclusion: This study found that neither smoking prevalence nor the number of cigarettes smoked reduced after the tax-induced price increases.