July 9, 2010 - Results from a recently published study in Health Policy, “State-Level Tobacco Control Policies and Youth Smoking Cessation Measures,” found evidence to suggest that increasing cigarette pricing encourages smoking cessation-related behaviors among youth smokers.  Such evidence has major implications for future health policy, suggesting that tax increases on tobacco products should play a major role in our tobacco control policy since these both decrease smoking prevalence and increase smoking cessation among youth.

Researchers Tworek et al. used a population-based, nested survey of students from 8th, 10th, and 12th grade  who had reported smoking regularly either in the past or currently to study the association between state-level tobacco control policies and youth smoking cessation from 1991 to 2006.  Study results found that a variety of different cessation-related outcomes such as, any quit attempt, want to quit, non-continuation of smoking, and discontinuation of smoking, were related with increased cigarette pricing.  Study results also showed that stronger laws restricting sales to minors were associated with non-continuation of smoking among 10th and 12th graders.

For more information please visit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20483500