PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Gallus, S AU - Schiaffino, A AU - La Vecchia, C AU - Townsend, J AU - Fernandez, E TI - Price and cigarette consumption in Europe AID - 10.1136/tc.2005.012468 DP - 2006 Apr 01 TA - Tobacco Control PG - 114--119 VI - 15 IP - 2 4099 - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/15/2/114.short 4100 - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/15/2/114.full SO - Tob Control2006 Apr 01; 15 AB - Objective: To analyse the variation in demand for tobacco according to price of cigarettes across the European region. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: All the 52 countries of the European region. Participants: For each European country, data were collected on annual per adult cigarette consumption (2000), smoking prevalence (most recent), retail price of a pack of local and foreign brand cigarettes (around 2000), the gross domestic product adjusted by purchasing power parities, and the adult population (2000). Main outcome measure: Price elasticity of demand for cigarettes (that is, the change in cigarette consumption according to a change in tobacco price) across all the European countries, estimated by double-log multiple linear regression. Results: Controlling for male to female prevalence ratio, price elasticities for consumption were −0.46 (95% confidence interval (CI) −0.74 to −0.17) and −0.74 (95% CI −1.13 to −0.35) for local and foreign brand, respectively. The inverse relation between cigarette price and consumption was stronger in countries not in the European Union (price elasticity for foreign brand cigarettes of −0.8) as compared to European Union countries (price elasticity of −0.4). Conclusions: The result that, on average, in Europe smoking consumption decreases 5–7% for a 10% increase in the real price of cigarettes strongly supports an inverse association between price and cigarette smoking.