RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Trends in cross-border and illicit tobacco purchases among people who smoke in England, 2019–2022
JF Tobacco Control
JO Tob Control
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 688
OP 692
DO 10.1136/tc-2023-057991
VO 33
IS 5
A1 Jackson, Sarah E
A1 Cox, Sharon
A1 Brown, Jamie
YR 2024
UL http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/33/5/688.abstract
AB Objectives The last 5 years have seen substantial changes in England’s social and economic landscape as a result of Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis. We aimed to examine changes in cross-border and illicit tobacco purchasing over this period.Design Nationally representative monthly cross-sectional survey.Setting England, 2019–2022.Participants 11 232 adults (≥18 years) who smoked in the past year.Main outcome measures We estimated time trends in the proportion reporting purchasing tobacco from (1) cross-border and (2) illicit sources in the past 6 months.Results Between February 2019 and October 2022, there was a non-linear increase in the proportion of participants reporting cross-border tobacco purchases (from 5.2% to 16.1% overall; prevalence ratio (PR)=3.10, 95% CI 2.03–4.73). Prevalence first increased from 5.2% to 15.4% between February 2019 and April 2020, before falling to 7.8% between April 2020 and September 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then increasing again to 16.1% by the end of the period. Changes in cross-border tobacco purchasing were more pronounced among participants from more advantaged (from 6.6% to 23.3%; PR=3.52, 95% CI 2.05–5.91) compared with less advantaged (4.4% to 11.5%; PR=2.61, 95% CI 1.17–5.20) social grades (pinteraction=0.034). There was no overall change in the proportion reporting illicit tobacco purchases (from 9.2% to 8.5%; PR=0.92, 95% CI 0.70–1.21), nor any significant difference in trends by social grade (pinteraction=0.783).Conclusions Despite a fall in cross-border tobacco purchasing during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic among adults in England who smoke, the proportion reporting cross-border tobacco purchases is now three times higher than it was at the start of 2019. The proportion reporting illicit tobacco purchases has not changed substantially.