Differences in demand and age and socioeconomic groups for factory-made cigarettes and home-made cigarettes: results of an international tobacco control survey in the Netherlands. 

Nicotine & Tobacco Research, ntab220, https: //doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntab220

Commentary

Macroeconomic studies have shown that young individuals of low socioeconomic status who smoke respond strongly to increases in the price of cigarettes.

This evidence stems from studies of factory-made (FM) cigarettes, and not from demand for roll-your-own (RYO) cigarettes.

This study investigated whether individual demand for FM and RYO cigarettes, age, and different socioeconomic groups differed. The FM, and RYO cigarette purchase task was included in the 2020 International Tobacco Control (ITC) Netherlands study.

Adults who smoke daily (n = 1620) were asked to state how many cigarettes they smoke in 24 hours at eight different prices.

From these, four demand indices were derived.

The results showed that RYO cigarette smokers had higher intensity and higher alpha than FM cigarette smokers. Also, participants with lower income have higher intensity, and lower indication P max than other income, because participants aged 25-39 years showed lower P max and participants aged 18-24 years showed higher breakpoint. However, we did not find any association with education.

This suggests that RYO cigarette smokers are more price sensitive than FM cigarette smokers, supporting the need to harmonize cigarette taxes.