Youth Economic Theory
Is smoking related to poverty? Fieldwork shocks scholars
In addition to weakening the labor force and lowering income, smoking also significantly increases the probability of outpatient visits, hospitalization and medical expenses for smokers.
"One person gets a serious illness, and the whole family is dragged down." Especially for poor households, smoking-related diseases directly affect the pace of poverty alleviation and easily lead to return to poverty due to illness.
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A survey on the relationship between tobacco use and poverty puts the impact of smoking-related chronic non-communicable diseases on poverty on the table.
Professor Jin Chenggang’s research group from the School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, "Evaluation of the Effect of Tobacco Use on Poverty", from March 2019 to December 2020, conducted research on Hebei, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and 2,409 households in 8 provinces of Shaanxi used qualitative research methods such as field observation and focus interviews, and quantitative research methods such as questionnaire surveys to study and evaluate the impact of tobacco use on poverty.
The results of the study show that the smoking rate in poverty-stricken areas in my country is as high as 34.2%, which is much higher than the national average of 26.6%.
More importantly, the poverty rate of smokers' families is 23.61%, which is nearly twice that of non-smokers' families.
"This is so far the only project in the country to investigate and study the relationship between smoking and health and poverty." Researcher Xu Guihua, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the China Tobacco Control Association and senior tobacco control expert, has repeatedly studied the survey data, although the conclusions drawn from the data are unexpected. Among them, the severity is far beyond imagination.
Lower incomes, increased medical expenses, increased smoking, two mountains for poverty
The survey further clarified the relationship between smoking and poverty: the probability of family poverty among smokers increased significantly.
The family poverty probability of smokers among the survey subjects is 23.61%, which is significantly higher than the family poverty probability of non-smokers, 13.81%.
The poverty probability of smoker families is nearly twice that of non-smoker families.
Among smokers, the smoking rate is 56.4% for men and 10.49% for women; the average daily smoking amount is 17.5±10 cigarettes, 46.86% of smokers smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day, and the average starting smoking age is 21 years old. The average smoking age is 34 years.
In addition, compared with non-poor people, poor people still have insufficient awareness of the dangers of smoking.
Among the 2409 households surveyed, 1595 were rural households and 814 were urban households; 430 were poor households, and 1979 were non-poor households; the rural population was 3206, accounting for 67.51%, and the urban population was 1543, accounting for 32.49%.
The maximum age of the respondents is 98 years old and the youngest is 40 years old.
Jin Chenggang pointed out that 2020 is a critical moment to win the battle against poverty. At present, the proportion of poverty-stricken households in my country who have registered for registration and return to poverty due to illness is more than 42%.
Among the sick rural poor, those aged 15 to 59 account for more than 40%, and they are basically the main labor force in their families.
In addition to weakening the labor force and lowering income, smoking also significantly increases the probability of outpatient visits, hospitalization and medical expenses for smokers.
Compared with non-smokers, the probability of visiting outpatient clinics was increased by 51.3% for smokers; the probability that smokers were hospitalized within the year before the survey was 53.2% higher than that for non-smokers.
Among smokers, 72.19% of people incurred health care consumption expenditures, which was much higher than 9.28% of non-smokers.
At the same time, smoking also significantly increases the prevalence of smoking-related chronic diseases.
The overall prevalence of chronic diseases among the respondents was 32.81%, the prevalence of chronic diseases among smokers was 55.32%, and that among non-smokers was 22.17%.
How to break the vicious circle? Experts call for higher tobacco tax prices
Smoking squeezes out family food and education expenditures, not only exacerbating the phenomenon of individuals becoming poor due to illness and returning to poverty due to illness, but also putting a huge burden on the national finances.
The survey shows that compared with non-smokers, smoking people have a 63% higher probability of incurring health care expenditures.
The survey also showed a result: the poor are more price sensitive, and raising tobacco tax prices will significantly reduce smoking.
Studies have shown that cigarette price increases have an impact on 46.69% of the population’s smoking: Among the affected population, 61.66% choose to reduce their smoking, and 13.37% choose to quit smoking.
In addition, if the price of frequently smoked cigarettes rises by 30%, 50% and 100%, smoking will decrease on average by 5.9, 7.6 and 8.8.
Xu Zhengzhong, deputy director of the Economics Department of the Central Party School (National School of Administration), said that the survey results are consistent with international research results.
Currently, cigarette prices in my country are generally low, and up to 50% of smokers in China smoke cheap cigarettes.
The low price meets their consumption demand for tobacco, but it will undoubtedly reduce their expenditure on food, vegetables and fruits, education and health.
This is very detrimental to achieving the health goals of the Healthy China 2030 Plan.
"In 2015, my country increased the ad valorem tax on cigarettes from 5% to 11%. In 2016, cigarette consumption decreased by 8.6%, and fiscal revenue increased by 85.2 billion yuan, achieving a win-win result for a number of policy goals such as a decline in tobacco consumption and an increase in fiscal revenue. The result." Xu Zhengzhong suggested to study and increase tobacco prices as soon as possible.
"Increasing cigarette prices not only reduces the tobacco consumption of the poor, reduces the risk of illness, reduces their medical expenditures, and improves their health, but it also increases government tax-related tobacco revenue and reduces tobacco-related disease expenditures."
Experts who participated in the survey results also pointed out that existing surveys and practices have proved that young people and low-income people are the most sensitive to tobacco prices.
An increase in tobacco prices can significantly reduce the smoking rates of these two groups.
Jin Chenggang pointed out that the survey reflects the reality that smoking culture and smoking environment are very different in rural and urban areas.
In cities, the implementation of regulations such as prohibiting smoking indoors over the years has made the notion that smoking is a disgraceful thing gradually gaining popularity.
In rural areas, smoking is still a common culture.
Therefore, he called for the implementation of smoking control measures in rural areas equal to that in urban areas, fair treatment, and raising the threshold of smoking in order to achieve the goal of smoking control.
Xu Guihua pointed out, “One person gets a serious illness, and the whole family is dragged down.” Especially for poor households, the diseases caused by smoking directly affect their pace of poverty alleviation.
She appealed to help the poor first to help health.
Therefore, in the poverty alleviation work, it is not only necessary to vigorously carry out tobacco control publicity and education and intervention activities, but also should be included in the plan of health poverty alleviation actions.
"Move the barrier of health and poverty alleviation forward, otherwise it may be passive."
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Li Chenhe Source: China Youth Daily