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The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Appropriate increases in tobacco taxes and prices are an essential component of comprehensive tobacco control strategies. This study investigates factors related to the use, sale, and distribution of cigarettes in Iran, focusing on the relationship between cigarette price and its consump...

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Autores principales: Golestan, Younes Panahi, Ebrahimi Kalan, Mohammad, Ben Taleb, Ziyad, Ward, Kenneth D., Fazlzadeh, Mehdi, Bahelah, Raed, Masjedi, Mohammad Reza, Charkazi, Abdurrahman, Dehghan, Nasir, Sighaldeh, Shirin Shahbazi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8456583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34551764
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11733-5
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author Golestan, Younes Panahi
Ebrahimi Kalan, Mohammad
Ben Taleb, Ziyad
Ward, Kenneth D.
Fazlzadeh, Mehdi
Bahelah, Raed
Masjedi, Mohammad Reza
Charkazi, Abdurrahman
Dehghan, Nasir
Sighaldeh, Shirin Shahbazi
author_facet Golestan, Younes Panahi
Ebrahimi Kalan, Mohammad
Ben Taleb, Ziyad
Ward, Kenneth D.
Fazlzadeh, Mehdi
Bahelah, Raed
Masjedi, Mohammad Reza
Charkazi, Abdurrahman
Dehghan, Nasir
Sighaldeh, Shirin Shahbazi
author_sort Golestan, Younes Panahi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Appropriate increases in tobacco taxes and prices are an essential component of comprehensive tobacco control strategies. This study investigates factors related to the use, sale, and distribution of cigarettes in Iran, focusing on the relationship between cigarette price and its consumption. METHODS: This interview-based qualitative study was conducted among 20 participants, including cigarette smokers, retail shop owners, large-scale distributors, and an expert in tobacco control research. RESULTS: Seven themes were extracted from participant interviews, including the type and price of cigarette, the best time to sell cigarettes, profits from the sale of cigarette, affordability, rise in cigarette price and smokers’ reaction to it, lobbying and black-market sales of cigarettes, and the sale and distribution of cigarettes across the country. Although the price of cigarettes in Iran has shown some increases in the past decade, the timing of these increases are not predictable and the limited amount of these increases has not reduced the use of cigarettes. Following a price increase, consumers are more likely to switch from buying packets to single cigarettes, or buy a less expensive brand, then to quit. Moreover, increases in prices may encourage smokers and sellers to buy a large number of cigarettes and store them for a rainy day. Another adverse effect may be increased smuggling of illicit cigarettes to balance the pressure caused by rising prices. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight two important aspects concerning cigarette pricing in Iran. First is the change in the type of purchase from the whole box of cigarettes to the single stick cigarette or swapping to less expensive cigarettes. Second, increase in cigarette price (either through taxing or regular increases) could be offset by flooding smuggled cigarettes into the market. Therefore, in addition to raising cigarette prices, reducing cigarette consumption rates in Iran requires the development and effective implementation of regulatory policies to control cigarette smuggling, reduce purchasing, and subsequently curb the use of this leading cause of premature morbidity and mortality. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-11733-5.
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spelling pubmed-84565832021-09-22 The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study Golestan, Younes Panahi Ebrahimi Kalan, Mohammad Ben Taleb, Ziyad Ward, Kenneth D. Fazlzadeh, Mehdi Bahelah, Raed Masjedi, Mohammad Reza Charkazi, Abdurrahman Dehghan, Nasir Sighaldeh, Shirin Shahbazi BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Appropriate increases in tobacco taxes and prices are an essential component of comprehensive tobacco control strategies. This study investigates factors related to the use, sale, and distribution of cigarettes in Iran, focusing on the relationship between cigarette price and its consumption. METHODS: This interview-based qualitative study was conducted among 20 participants, including cigarette smokers, retail shop owners, large-scale distributors, and an expert in tobacco control research. RESULTS: Seven themes were extracted from participant interviews, including the type and price of cigarette, the best time to sell cigarettes, profits from the sale of cigarette, affordability, rise in cigarette price and smokers’ reaction to it, lobbying and black-market sales of cigarettes, and the sale and distribution of cigarettes across the country. Although the price of cigarettes in Iran has shown some increases in the past decade, the timing of these increases are not predictable and the limited amount of these increases has not reduced the use of cigarettes. Following a price increase, consumers are more likely to switch from buying packets to single cigarettes, or buy a less expensive brand, then to quit. Moreover, increases in prices may encourage smokers and sellers to buy a large number of cigarettes and store them for a rainy day. Another adverse effect may be increased smuggling of illicit cigarettes to balance the pressure caused by rising prices. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight two important aspects concerning cigarette pricing in Iran. First is the change in the type of purchase from the whole box of cigarettes to the single stick cigarette or swapping to less expensive cigarettes. Second, increase in cigarette price (either through taxing or regular increases) could be offset by flooding smuggled cigarettes into the market. Therefore, in addition to raising cigarette prices, reducing cigarette consumption rates in Iran requires the development and effective implementation of regulatory policies to control cigarette smuggling, reduce purchasing, and subsequently curb the use of this leading cause of premature morbidity and mortality. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-11733-5. BioMed Central 2021-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8456583/ /pubmed/34551764 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11733-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Golestan, Younes Panahi
Ebrahimi Kalan, Mohammad
Ben Taleb, Ziyad
Ward, Kenneth D.
Fazlzadeh, Mehdi
Bahelah, Raed
Masjedi, Mohammad Reza
Charkazi, Abdurrahman
Dehghan, Nasir
Sighaldeh, Shirin Shahbazi
The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study
title The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study
title_full The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study
title_fullStr The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study
title_short The effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in Tehran: a qualitative study
title_sort effect of price on cigarette consumption, distribution, and sale in tehran: a qualitative study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8456583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34551764
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11733-5
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