Browsing by Author "Jofre-Bonet, Mireia"

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    Burning a hole in the budget: tobacco spending and its crowd-out of other goods.
    (Appl Health Econ Health Policy, 2004) Busch, Susan H; Jofre-Bonet, Mireia; Falba, Tracy A; Sindelar, Jody L
    Smoking is an expensive habit. Smoking households spend, on average, more than $US1000 annually on cigarettes. When a family member quits, in addition to the former smoker's improved long-term health, families benefit because savings from reduced cigarette expenditures can be allocated to other goods. For households in which some members continue to smoke, smoking expenditures crowd-out other purchases, which may affect other household members, as well as the smoker. We empirically analyse how expenditures on tobacco crowd-out consumption of other goods, estimating the patterns of substitution and complementarity between tobacco products and other categories of household expenditure. We use the Consumer Expenditure Survey data for the years 1995-2001, which we complement with regional price data and state cigarette prices. We estimate a consumer demand system that includes several main expenditure categories (cigarettes, food, alcohol, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care) and controls for socioeconomic variables and other sources of observable heterogeneity. Descriptive data indicate that, comparing smokers to nonsmokers, smokers spend less on housing. Results from the demand system indicate that as the price of cigarettes rises, households increase the quantity of food purchased, and, in some samples, reduce the quantity of apparel and housing purchased.
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    Reduction of quantity smoked predicts future cessation among older smokers.
    (Addiction, 2004-01) Falba, Tracy; Jofre-Bonet, Mireia; Busch, Susan; Duchovny, Noelia; Sindelar, Jody
    AIM: To examine whether smokers who reduce their quantity of cigarettes smoked between two periods are more or less likely to quit subsequently. STUDY DESIGN: Data come from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey of older Americans aged 51-61 in 1991 followed every 2 years from 1992 to 1998. The 2064 participants smoking at baseline and the first follow-up comprise the main sample. MEASUREMENTS: Smoking cessation by 1996 is examined as the primary outcome. A secondary outcome is relapse by 1998. Spontaneous changes in smoking quantity between the first two waves make up the key predictor variables. Control variables include gender, age, education, race, marital status, alcohol use, psychiatric problems, acute or chronic health problems and smoking quantity. FINDINGS: Large (over 50%) and even moderate (25-50%) reductions in quantity smoked between 1992 and 1994 predict prospectively increased likelihood of cessation in 1996 compared to no change in quantity (OR 2.96, P<0.001 and OR 1.61, P<0.01, respectively). Additionally, those who reduced and then quit were somewhat less likely to relapse by 1998 than those who did not reduce in the 2 years prior to quitting. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing successfully the quantity of cigarettes smoked appears to have a beneficial effect on future cessation likelihood, even after controlling for initial smoking level and other variables known to impact smoking cessation. These results indicate that the harm reduction strategy of reduced smoking warrants further study.
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    Willingness to pay for smoking cessation treatments
    (2004-08) Duchovny, Noelia; Falba, Tracy; Jody, Sindelar; Jofre-Bonet, Mireia; O'Malley, Stephanie; Susan, Busch
    This paper demonstrates the use of willingness to pay to value hypothetical new smoking cessation products. Data comes from a baseline survey of participants in a clinical trial of naltrexone combined with nicotine patch for smoking cessation (N=400) conducted in New Haven, CT. We analyze individual willingness to pay for a hypothetical tobacco cessation treatment that is 1) more effective than those currently available, and then 2) more effective and attenuates the weight gain often associated with smoking cessation. A majority of the respondents (280 or 86 %) were willing to pay for the more effective treatment, and of those, 175 (66 %) were willing to pay more if the increased effectiveness was accompanied by the attenuation of the weight gain associated with smoking cessation. This study suggests the validity of using willingness to pay surveys in assessing the value of new smoking cessation products and products with multifaceted improvements. From these data we calculate estimates of the value of a quit. For the population studied this survey suggests a substantial market for more effective smoking cessation treatments.