Proportion of illicit cigarette consumption by selected Brazilian state capital and survey methods, 2018–2019
| City/Ilicit | PLS*† | FTF-household | PDG*† | VIGITEL-cigarette‡‡§§¶¶ | ||
| FTF-householdpricecigarette‡§† | FTF-householdbrandcigarette¶***† | FTF-householdpricebrandcigarette¶**††*† | ||||
| Rio de Janeiro | ||||||
| % of cigarettes | 30.4 (25.6–35.7) | 27.8 (21.6–34.1) | 29.9 (23.3–36.5) | 31.7 (25.0–38.4) | 26.8 (25.1–28.6) | 9.3 (3.7–14.9) |
| São Paulo | ||||||
| % of cigarettes | 46.3 (36.4–56.6) | 36.5 (30.9–42.1) | 40.7 (34.3–47.0) | 42.0 (36.0–48.0) | n.a. | 20.1 (6.3–33.9) |
| Campo Grande | ||||||
| % of cigarettes | 70.1 (64.6–75.0) | n.avail | n.avail | n.avail | n.a. | 27.9 (12.7–43.1) |
| Belo Horizonte | ||||||
| % of cigarettes | 66.3 (61.8–70.6) | n.avail | n.avail | n.avail | n.a. | 19.1 (7.3–30.8) |
| João Pessoa | ||||||
| % of cigarettes | 55.3 (50.4–60.2) | n.avail | n.avail | n.avail | n.a. | 26.2 (8.3–44.1) |
*The overall number of packs collected/showed was, as follows: for the PLS, Rio de Janeiro (1,251), São Paulo (1760), Campo Grande (3907), Belo Horizonte (784), and João Pessoa (1051); for the FTF-householdbrand, Rio de Janeiro (680), and São Paulo (598); for the PDG, Rio de Janeiro (2705).
†P>0.136 in Pearson χ2 test for comparison of two proportions with sampling weight across PLS, FTF-household and PDG for Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo (except for São Paulo: PLS vs FTF-householdpricecigarette, p=0.092).
‡Individuals who reported having bought at least one cigarette pack in their last purchase and who informed having paid less than minimum price established by law, that is, less than 5.0 Brazilian Reais per pack.
§We excluded smokers who did not provide information on self-reported price per pack (0.8% in Sao Paulo and 0.0% in Rio de Janeiro).
¶91.7% and 81.7% of smokers interviewed in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, respectively, physically showed the pack of their last purchase at the moment of the interview and were included in the analysis.
**We used the official list of legal brands authorised by the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency and the direct observation of the presence/type of Brazilian health warnings to establish a boundary between both legal and illegal markets.
††Legal brands authorised by the ANVISA with the presence of Brazilian health warnings, but sold below 4.7 Brazilian Reais were also coded as illegal.
‡‡The overall number of smokers who provided information on the amount and price paid in their last purchase was, as follows: Rio de Janeiro (154), São Paulo (188), Campo Grande (119), Belo Horizonte (165), and João Pessoa (80).
§§We excluded smokers who did not provide information on self-reported price per pack (18.9% in Rio de Janeiro, 14.7% in São Paulo, 26.9% in Campo Grande, 6.4% in Belo Horizonte and 7.8% in João Pessoa).
¶¶P<0.050 in Pearsonχ2 tests for comparison of two proportions with sampling weight (VIGITEL vs any other survey method, except for São Paulo/FTF-householdpricecigarette (p=0.061)).
FTF, Face-to-Face Household; n.a., not applicable; n.avail., not available; PDG, packs discarded in household garbage; PLS, packs littered in the streets.