Costs Of Smoking: Years-Of-Healthy-Life Lost To Smoking

Understanding the burden of disease attributable to smoking over time and at the national and state levels is of utmost importance with regard to specifying quantifiable targets and examining the impact of interventions designed to promote smoking cessation.

The overall health burden of smoking in the U.S. was examined by calculating smoking-related quality-adjusted life years (QALYs)-which account for both morbidity and mortality- lost from 1993 to 2008 for the entire nation and for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, this study also examined the impact of the state excise tax on the state smoking-related QALYs lost.

Progress has been made with regard to smoking cessation but the smoking prevalence for the U.S. remains above the Healthy People 2010 target. Although the percent of smoking was lower for women and the percentage of smoking prevalence decrease was higher among women, the smoking-related QALYs lost increased for women compared to men. Smoking-related QALYs lost increased for the general US population and for nearly three-fourths of the states while the disparities in state prevalence and state smoking-related QALYs lost widened. States with a higher excise tax had a greater percentage decline as well as fewer smoking-related QALYs lost.

Says Dr. Jia: "These results might assist public health practitioners and policymakers in setting smoking-related targets for the nation and tracking changes in the burden of disease attributable to smoking in a timely manner. The method also can delineate priorities for prevention in a given population at the national, state, and local levels as well as according to sociodemographic subgroup."

The burden of disease attributed to smoking will be discussed in Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. Value in Health publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 5,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.