TY - JOUR T1 - Price and cigarette consumption in Europe JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 114 LP - 119 DO - 10.1136/tc.2005.012468 VL - 15 IS - 2 AU - S Gallus AU - A Schiaffino AU - C La Vecchia AU - J Townsend AU - E Fernandez Y1 - 2006/04/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/15/2/114.abstract N2 - 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. ER -