5.12 Affordability of tobacco products

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5.1 Introduction

5.2 Stages in the uptake of smoking

5.3 Factors influencing uptake by young people—overview

5.4 Physiological aspects

5.5 Individual personality traits and psychiatric influences

5.6 Intentions, attitudes and beliefs

5.7 The home environment

5.8 The smoking behaviour of peers, and peer attitudes and norms

5.9 The educational environment: achievements, aspirations and 'school connectedness'

5.10 Other drug use

5.11 Accessibility of tobacco products to young smokers

5.12 Affordability of tobacco products

5.13 Opportunity to smoke

5.14 Cultural background

5.15 Tobacco advertising and promotion targeted at young people

5.16 Products and packaging created to appeal to new users

5.17 Factors influencing uptake of smoking later in life

5.18 Uptake—a concluding note

5.19 What is meant by prevention?

5.20 Approaches to youth smoking prevention

5.21 Mass media strategies/campaigns

5.22 Interactive technology and multimedia

5.23 School-based interventions

5.24 Peer influence and education

5.25 Parent/family/home targeted interventions

5.26 Reducing tobacco access and supply

5.27 Reducing product appeal

5.28 Promotion and visibility of tobacco

5.29 Denormalising smoking

5.30 Taxation and pricing of tobacco products

5.31 Harnessing predictors of uptake to prevent smoking

5.32 Preventing smoking in more 'at risk' groups

Acknowledgments

References

As noted in Section 5.11, many young smokers do not purchase their own cigarettes directly, but obtain them through their social network and from other informal sources. The likelihood of buying cigarettes over the counter increases with age and frequency of smoking behaviour.2 Therefore it is likely that tobacco pricing is not a major concern for young smokers while experimenting with cigarettes.123 As smoking behaviour becomes more established and adolescents increasingly finance their own tobacco purchases, affordability of cigarettes becomes a far more important consideration.

There is a substantial body of evidence that demonstrates that youth smokers are particularly sensitive to rises in tobacco prices. Fiscal policy is an integral component of comprehensive tobacco control policy.9, 124 The effects of pricing on consumption are discussed briefly in Section 5.30, and in greater detail in Chapter 13, Section 13.1.5 .