Tobacco Institute
The Economic Costs of the Health Effects of Smoking, 1984
Fields
- Named Person
- National Center Health Statist 1
- Us Public Health Service 2
- Schelling, T.C.
- Lansky
- Childrens Hospital Philadelphi 3
- Bloom
- Knorr
- Evans
- Office Technology Assessment 4
- Kelly
- Colditz
- Oster
- Leu
- Us Public Health Service 2
- Box
- 106
- Site
- Cb1147, TI Storage Box 1562
- Request
- Mn1-25
- Type
- PERIODICAL/NEWS ARTICLE
- Author
- Rice, D.P. 5
- Hodgson, T.A. 6
- Sinsheimer, P. 7
- Browner, W.
- Kopstein, A.N.
- Milbank Quarterly 8
- Hodgson, T.A. 6
- Date Loaded
- 05 Jun 1998
- Litigation
- Minnesota AG
- UCSF Legacy ID
- ypk62f00
Annotations
- 1. National Center Health Statist Named Person
- Affiliation:
National Center Health Statistics
- Affiliation:
- 2. Us Public Health Service Named Person
- Affiliation:
US Public Health Service
- Affiliation:
- 3. Childrens Hospital Philadelphi Named Person
- Affiliation:
Childrens Hospital Philadelphia
- Affiliation:
- 4. Office Technology Assessment Named Person
- Affiliation:
Office Technology Assessment
- Affiliation:
- 5. Rice, D.P. Author
- Affiliation:
University California San Francisco
- Affiliation:
- 6. Hodgson, T.A. Author
- Affiliation:
National Center Health Statistics
- Affiliation:
- 7. Sinsheimer, P. Author
- Affiliation:
San Diego State University
- Affiliation:
- 8. Milbank Quarterly Author
- Affiliation:
Milbank Quarterly
- Affiliation:
Document Images
Volume 64 Numhcr 1 1986
THEMILBANK
~UARTERLY
rnrc (:usts ol thc tlcalth E/lccts ttl Smoking, I')}{ri 481)
P. IZI(-ti, THOMAS A. I'IOIX,tit)N, hPTIiR SINtiNHIMLR,
iROWNI:R, and ANI)RISA N. (t01'tif1i1N
iiMO Care: Issues and Options in Setting Capitation
548
'. ANI)I:RtiUN, ISARI. P. STI:INBIiR(:, JAMIiti IIOI.LOWAY,
C. CANTOR
tinl; for Liiascd S<It:ction in Ilr:altlt losurante 566
;. LUIT
yuity: Swedish Iicalth Policy and the Private Seuur 592
J M. {KOS(iNT11At.
t ul Malingrring: Why Individuals Wincdraw linln Work
csr:ncc of Illness
622
Yt:1.1N
'.ty in Unsalr Jobs: Thcury, IiviJcnce, and 1'uli(y
uns
(i5v
}.~ . K()IiINti()N
( AMRRIIH,1 UNIVI Rtilll' I'RI'+1
i! l-asr 5,01 5tnm, New Yntk, NY 11102., U S A
Thr Prtt BuilJinK, TrumpmKtun Street, (:atnhrydge (.132 2RU, F.nKland
Itl Surnlurd RuaJ, Uakletgh, Mellwurnc flG(i, Ausrraha
Prtnted m the (Inned Stnes of Amenta
I

Beyond Equity: Swedish Health Policy and
the Private Sector 592
MARILYNN M. ROSENTHAL
The rapid development of private medicine in Sweden poses a chal-
lenge to that nation's traditional commitment to equity and a pub-
lic system of health care. Economic constraints in public-sector
spending, physician intent in private practice, popular interest in
individual choice, and criticism of the public system have been the
stimulus. The dominant Social Democrats will likely accept those
elements of the private sector that are ideologically compatible, but
resist others.
The Myth of Malingering: Why Individuals
Withdraw from Work in the Presence of
Illness
EDWARD YELIN
Federal policy to provide income to workers disabled by chronic
illness has been under attack. Data from the Social Security Ad-
ministration Survey of Disability and Work reveal that anticipation
of higher levels of disability income does not correlate with cessa-
tion of work; the nature of illness and the structure of work do.
Policies predicated on the myth of malingering will hurt millions
of the disabled chronically ill.
622
Hazard Pay in Unsafe Jobs: Theory, Evi-
dence, and Policy Implications 65o
JAMES C. ROBINSON
Critics of OSHA argue that an unregulated labor market gives
firms incentives to improve working conditions. Analysis of the
relation between wages and hazardous working conditions confirms
that workers in hazardous jobs are paid marginally more than com-
parable workers in safe jobs. But hazardous occupations are concen-
trated in low-skill and low-pay strata. The empirical findings have
important implications for "right-to-know" and related occupa-
tional health strategies.
The Economic Costs of the Health Effects of
Smoking, 1984
DOROTHY P. RICE,'
THOMAS A. HODGSON,2
PETER SINSHEIMER,3
WARREN EROWNER,'
and ANDREA N. KOPSTEINZ
' Univerrity of Catifornia, San Francisco;
Z Nationa! Center for Health Stati.rtjcs;
3 San Diego State University, San Diego
C IGARETTE SMOKING IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF MORBIDITY
and mortality in the United States today. It has been linked
to a variety of illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, and
respiratory disease. Increasing public awareness of the health risks
associated with smoking has led to a decline in the proportion of
adults who smoke. Yet, as of 1985, 33 percent of men and 28 percent
of women smoked. Although there has been a decline in smoking in
recent years, the proportion of adult male smokers who smoke 25
cigarettes or more a day has increased from 24 percent in 1965 to
30 percent in 1985; for women, the proportion increased from 13
percent to 21 percent (National Center for Health Statistics 1985,
73; 1986).
The health hazards of cigarette smoking have been well documented.
More than twenty years ago, the Report of the Advisory Committee to the
Surgeon General of the Public Health Service was published (U.S. Public
Health Service 1964). That report and a series of subsequent reports
The Milbank Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 4, 1986
® 1986 Milbank Memorial Fund
489
I

490 1). P. Kiie et al, The Etononrii (:ortr of rhe Health i ffedt of Smokin,q, 1984 491
of the surgeon general reviewed the major prospective epidemiologic
studies in the United States and abroad that established the relation
between smoking and various illnesses. Recently, annual authoritative
reports have been released by the surgeon general on The Health
ConJeqaencu of Smoking in which cigarette smoking and its relation to
cancer (1982), cardiovascular diseases (1983), and chronic obstructive
lung disease (1984) were extensively reviewed. The 1985 report presented
a comprehensive review of the relation between cigarette smoking and
cancer and chronic lung disease in the work place (U.S. Public Health
Service, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985).
In addition to the health risks of smoking, there are important
economic consequences. A complete assessment of the economics of
smoking requires evaluation of various health, economic, and intangible
parameters, including benefits as well as costs of both the production
and consumption of tobacco. In many respects the purchase and con-
sumption of tobacco is similar to most other commodities and services
purchased in the market place. Expenditures for purchasing tobacco
cover the cost of resources used in the production process, profit, and
taxes. In return, smokers obtain a certain amount of enjoyment. Thus,
to a certain extent, smokers get their money's worth and the cost of
resources going into the production of tobacco is offset by the benefits
of tobacco consumption to smokers. On the other hand, smokers may
not have complete knowledge of the harmful health effects of smoking
(Warner 1985); although they know smoking is hazardous they are
addicted and unable to quit, and may not consider external effects
such as annoyance to nonsmokers or the cost of medical care paid `py
others. In this situation, costs of smoking other than the purchase
price are not fully reflected in the decision process, and benefits to
smokers may be less than the combined costs to smokers and nonsmokers.
In this article we focus on costs resulting from the health effects
of smoking: expenditures for medical care and the value of productive
output lost to morbidity, disability, and premature mortality among
smokers. These are important components of an analysis of the economics
of smoking. Among smokers who know smoking is hazardous to
health, the prospect of quitting may be painful, and continued smoking
may have become a means of avoiding the physical and psychological
discomforts of withdrawal. The costs of purchasing this tobacco is
not offset by the benefits of enjoyment from smoking; these costs can
be considered in addition to the health effects of smoking, but they
art nor quantified in this article.
This article reviews alternative perspectives and studies of the economic
costs of the health effects of smoking, quantifies the magnitude of
the costs to the economy by employing a prevalence-based analysis,
and compares our findings with those of other researchers. The appendix
describes the methodology of attributable risk used in the cost estimates.
Alternative Perspectives of Costs of Smoking
Two distinct methodologies exist for evaluating illness and disease in
economic terms, the human capital and willingness-to-pay approaches.
The former method, used in this study, is called the human capital
approach because an employed person is seen as producing a stream
of output over the years that is valued at the individual's earnings
(Rice, Hodgson, and Kopstein 19R5). The willingness-to-pay method
values human life according to the amount people are willing to spend
to obtain reductions in the probability of death (Schelling 1968; Acton
1975). The relative merits of these two models is a subject of continuing
debate (Robinson 1986). Even within the context of human capital
methods employed in this article, there are alternative perspectives
from which to view the costs of smoking. Two essential characteristics
that distinguish perspectives involve different views on the answer to
the question "costs to whom?" and the temporal relation between
smoking and costs.
Costs to Whom?
A prevailing view is that the costs of illness to all of society, smokers
as well as nonsmokers, and the indirect costs of morbidity and mortality
are the value of an individual's total output, without deductions for
consumption (Mishan 1971). In accord with this view, cost-of-illness
estimates measure the value of resources used (direct costs) and lost
(indirect costs) and the total output lost as a result of illness or death
is the value forgone. T.C. Schelling (personal communication, February
15, 1984) suggests, on the other hand, that "costs to whom?" requires
two different answers: (1) costs to those afflicted by illness and disease,
and (2) costs to everyone else, with the monetary impact on others
being important because of the welfare gains and losses they entail
for the parties to the transactions. Studies may differ in their analyses
I

492 D.P. Rice et al. The Economic Co.rtl of the Health Gffects of Smoking, 1984 4493
of who gains and loses and the amount of benefits and costs to various
parties.
The essential distinction between these two views is that the former
counts only the value of resources used resulting in forgone alternatives,
and resources lost in terms of unemployed labor, while the latter also
investigates transfers of resources from one segment of society to
another. We are concerned in this article with certain economic costs
of the health effects of smoking, including the value of resources used
to provide medical c-are and the value of labor forgone due to morbidity,
disability, and premature mortality. The costs estimated are in accord
with the first of the two perspectives outlined above. The distribution
of a given level of output between consumption and savings and the
amount of reallocation of one's output to other members of society
is a function of social welfare, fiscal and monetary policy, and other
means available to policy makers. The relative shares going to the ill
or deceased individuals versus the rest of society are determined by
the current economic policies and incentives and are a separate issue.
We should keep in mind, however, that tobacco consumption and
accompanying health effects, in concert with the institutional framework
of the society, confer monetary benefits on one group through the
imposition of monetary costs on another. On average, current and
former smokers use more medical care, experience more work-loss
days, and have higher mortality rates than persons who have never
smoked. Although a smoker may suffer from smoking-induced illness
and require medical care, the cost of the treatment may be borne, at
least in part, by others. This occurs, for example, when medical care
for smoking-related diseases is paid by health insurance funded by
premiums collected from both other smokers and nonsmokers, or by
public expenditures such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Similar considerations apply to indirect costs. If a smoker loses
time from work due to sickness, the real cost is the value of labor
not productively employed. The monetary cost of the day lost from
work may be borne in whole or in part by the sick worker and
dependents, other employees, the employer, or the rest of society.
The worker and dependents bear the cost of absences not covered by
paid sick leave, other employees may incur costs in the form of lower
wages in order to fund sick leave benefits, employers face higher costs
for sick leave and additional labor costs or reduced output, and the
society as a whole may have to pay higher prices to cover higher costs
E
of production and lose tax revenues on income lost by the sick worker.
Premature mortality presents a similar situation, although the time
horizon is years instead of days. Output lost is a real economic cost.
There are also pecuniary transfers, including taxes forgone on income
lost by the deceased, Social Security and pension benefits paid to
survivors, and Social Security and pension payments forgone by the
deceased to the benefit of surviving smokers and nonsmokers.
The deleterious health effects of smoking generate a variety of
financial flows in addition to economic costs. These financial flows
have distributional effects, transferring control over the use of resources
from one group to another, affecting behavior, and changing the
relative well-being of individuals. Although outside the scope.of this
article, which is confined to estimates of resource costs and losses,
transfers such as health insurance premiums and payments, Social
Security, pension, si4kness payments and benefits are important economic
values in the social decision-making process. Knowledge of who benefits
and who pays and the magnitudes of benefits and costs to various
parties can assist in determining the societal response to smoking
activities. It might be important to know, for example, the impact
of smoking on Scx ial Security, Medicare payments, etc. (Office of
Technology Assessment 1985). Some additional aspects of transfer
payments are discussed in the section on types of costs.
Finally, it is important not to view the issues in terms of smokers
versus nonsmokers. Most deleterious health effects of smoking are
self-inflicted on smokers by their consumption of tobacco, although
there are possible health effects of passive smoking. On the other
hand, economic costs and transfer payments occasioned by smoking-
induced disease are shared in varying amounts by ill smokers, nonill
smokers, and nonsmokers. For example, although the ill smoker receives
medical care covered by health insurance, it is financed by premiums
paid by ill smokers, nonill smokers, and nonsmokers.
Temporal Relation between Smoking and Costs
A second essential characteristic that distinguishes perspectives is the
temporal relation between smoking and measured costs. Smoking
presents a dynamic, time-dependent phenomenon. Some costs of
smoking, such as the annoyance caused nonsmokers and property
damage from smoking-related fires, are coincident in time with the
I

494
D.I'. Rue el al.
purchase and consumption of tobacco. The most important costs of
smoking in terms of magnitude of their impact are smoking-related
diseases and the attendant morbidity, mortality, medical care costs,
indirect losses, and intangible losses from pain, suffering, and other
quality-of-life changes. These effects result from cumulative exposure
over many years and are far removed and distant in time from the
tobacco use that helps cause them.
In this article we present an example of a prevalence-based cost-
of-illness analysis in which the current toll of direct and indirect
economic costs resulting from prior smoking is estimated. That is,
the health care expenditures incurred and value of economic output
lost in 1980 as a result of past smoking over many years are calculated.
Prevalence-based cost-of smoking estimates measure the amounts spent
during a year and the value of lost economic output for deleterious
health effects manifest during the year, but caused by exposure to
tobacco over many previous years.
In addition to knowing the current annual burden of past smoking
(prevalence costs), it is important to know the future costs likely to
result from current levels of smoking (incidence costs) and the reductions
in costs to be expected from reductions in smoking. Prevalence costs
indicate the maximum annual value of resources that could be gained
for other uses as levels of smoking decrease. Even with complete and
immediate cessation of all smoking, it would be a number of years
before morbidity and mortality rates of former smokers returned to
levels comparable to those of persons who never smoked. The total
amount saved would be the sum of a series of annual reductions which
rise over time to a maximum level. Examples of prevalence- and
incidence-based studies of the health effects of smoking are described
in a later section. .
A related issue is the possible tradeoff between higher than average
annual medical care use by and expenditures for smokers and longer
life expectancy and additional years of medical care for nonsmokers
(Leu and Schaub 1983). To the extent that smokers die prematurely,
higher medical care expenditures for smoking-induced disease during
the smoker's lifetime are offset to a certain degree by expenditures
that would be incurred in future years if the smoker did not smoke
and enjoyed longer life (Institute of Medicine 1981). The quantitative
nature of total versus net direct costs of smoking, however, remains
to be rigorously analyzed, and the conceptual validity of net direct
The Eronomic Corr.r o j the Healeh Effecl.r of Smoking, 1984
495
costs in certain applications has been questioned (Russell 1986; Warner
and Luce 1982).
Types of Cost
The different types of smoking costs are briefly described below.
Direct Cart.r
Direct costs of medical care (hospital and nursing home care, services
of health practitioners, drugs, etc.) to treat diseases related to smoking
result largely from illness self-inflicted on smokers by their consumption
of tobacco. The costs of care of nonsmokers exposed to and ill from
tobacco smoke are also included. Other direct costs of smoking include
costs of cleaning clothes and air of smoke, repairing and replacing
articles damaged by cigarette burns, attempts to quit smoking, fires
caused by smoking, activities related to smoking and health by private
and government groups, and costs to business to hire and train re-
placements for ill smokers.
Additional direct costs of disease borne by patients and other in-
dividuals include costs of transportation to health providers, certain
household expenditures, and costs of relocating (such as moving expenses).
Transportation costs could be incurred not only for local transportation
to hospitals, clinics, physicians, etc., but also for transportation out
of state, and out-of-area living costs. lllness can force a family to
incur expenses in caring and providing for the sick member of the
family. Thece include extra expenditures for household help for cleaning,
laundering, cooking, and babysitting; special diets; special clothing;
items for rehabilitation and comfort such as exercycles, vaporizers,
humidifiers, and dehumidifiers; alterations of property, such as elevators
for invalids and other special housing facilities; and vocational, social,
and family counseling services. Other costs originating in disease or
illness are expenditures for retraining or reeducation, and care provided
by family and friends.
Limitations of data have hindered development of estimates of direct
costs other than health expenditures, with existing information being
mostly anecdotal. Luce and Schweitzer (1978) included the health
care and property costs of fires caused by smoking, but these amounted

496
D.P. Rice el a!.
to less than 3 percent of the total direct costs. Nonhealth direct costs
have been estimated infrequently, usually for a specific disease (cancer,
for example), and for relatively small samples. Although not concerned
with health effects of smoking, several studies indicate the potential
importance of nonhealth direct costs. Lansky et al. (1979) found mean
weekly expenditures for 70 families of pediatric cancer patients totaled
$56 for transportation, food, clothing, family care, and lodging.
Patients receiving out-patient chemotherapy reported similar nonmedical
expenses resulting from their diseases of $37 during treatment weeks
and $17 during riontreatment weeks (Houts et al. 1984). Although
these expenditures seem relatively high, neither study indicates how
many weeks they were incurred, their relation to medical care ex-
penditures, or the year of data collection. In their study of costs of
caring for children with cancer, Bloom, Knorr, and Evans (1985)
found nonmedical direct expenses for a six-month period in 1981 for
569 children with cancer at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
averaged about ;4,000 annually and were almost 20 percent of the
medical expenditures incurred during this same period and 15 percent
of gross annual family income.
One of the few studies, if not the only one, to attempt to estimate
nonhealth-sector costs for the nation for all medical conditions was
by Mushkin and Landefeld (1978). They estimated nonhealth direct
costs between $23 billion (low estimate) and $29 billion (high estimate)
in 1975, adding 19 to 23 percent to direct health care expenditures.
These additional expenditures were incurred by consumers for trans-
portation to providers, property losses to fire, and automobile accidents;
by government for special education, vocational rehabilitation, coun-
seling, added fire protection, and extra costs to the criminal justice
system; and by industry for environmental and safety investments.
These were the only nonhealth direct expenditures Mushkin and Iandefeld
were able to estimate with existing data, and represent only a fraction
of the potentially measurable costs. Although these nonmeasured costs
are potentially large, their relative importance compared to health
care expenditures is'uncertain.
I ndirect Cott.r
Indirect costs of smoking are the value of lost productivity, output,
or forgone manpower resources when persons lose time from work
The Economic Co.rr.r nf the Health Effect.r of Smoking, 1984
497
and other productive activities due to morbidity, disability, or premature
mortality caused by smoking-induced illnesses. In this article, we
estimate these indirect costs of smoking. Illness may also adversely
affect productivity in addition to causing time lost from work by
lessening the productivity of persons while on the job. Absenteeism
also may increase costs of production with the end result that the
value of output per unit of input declines. Additional indirect costs
include the time a patient and/or family members spend visiting
physicians, other health professionals, and hospitalized persons, and
time lost from work by family members when someone in the family
is ill.
As for nonhealth direct costs, data for estimating indirect costs
associated with lessened on-the-job productivity and time lost to
various persons besides the patient are sparse. Mushkin and Landefeld
(1978) estimated the cost of time spent visiting physicians, dentists,
and hospitals, and days lost from work due to another person's illness
at about $4 to $6 billion in 1975. This adds 5 percent to the
commonly estimated indirect costs resulting from the patient's morbidity
and premature mortality. The study by Lansky et al. (1979) of families
of pediatric cancer patients found an average loss of pay from accom-
panying the child to the hospital equal to 14 percent of family income.
In the study by Bloom, Knorr, and Evans (1985), families of children
with cancer lost wages amounting to 18 percent of family income.
Indirect costs such as these, which have not usually been measured
in cost-of-illness studies due to lack of data, very likely vary by disease
and certain other parameters. These few studies indicate, however,
that as for nonhealth direct costs, nonmeasured indirect costs may be
a substantial portion of the economic burden of illness.
Intangible Costs
Direct and indirect costs are losses because they represent reduced
consumption possihilities; costs result from the consumption of resources
that are thus forgone to other uses. In addition to economic, that is,
monetary, costs, smoking causes intangible costs. These include in-
tangible costs inflicted on others in the vicinity such as the irritating
effects of smoke on the visual and olfactory senses and the respiratory
system, and the annoyance these cause, and also noneconomic effects
of illness and disease suffered by smokers and their families, friends,
coworkers, and care-givers.

498 D.P. Rice et al. f The Economic Cn.rt.r of the Health Effect.r of Smoking, 1984 499
Illness and disease are responsible for a wide variety of deteriorations
in the quality of life and personal catastrophes that are not reflected
in direct and indirect economic costs. Victims may suffer loss of a
body part or speech, disfigurement, disability, the pain and grief of
impending death. They, and those around them, may be forced into
economic dependence and social isolation, unwanted job changes,
discrimination in obtaining employment and health and life insurance,
loss of opportunities for promotion and education, relocation of living
quarters, and other undesired changes in life plans. The environment
created by illness'oken induces anxiety, reduced self-esteem and feeling
of well-being, resentment, and emotional problems that often require
psychotherapy. Problems of living may develop, leading to family
conflict, antisocial behavior, and suicide. The victims and others may
experience marked personality changes and reduced sexual function.
Premature mortality has direct consequences for the family, affecting,
for example, duration of marriage and age at widowhood. Disrupted
, development and delinquency may occur among children. The quality
of life may be reduced beyond the restorative capability of current
rehabilitation efforts. The combination of financial strain and psychosocial
problems can be especially devastating.
Psychosocial problems have been documented in numerous studies
and appear to be widespread. A few examples are studies by Blanchard,
Blanchard, and Becker (1976) (depression among widows), Campbell
and Campbell (1978) (invasion of privacy, high insurance and interest
rates, termination of employment), Cassileth et al. (1984) (mental
health status), Derogatis et al. (1983) (psychiatric disorders), Goldberg
(1981) (depression), Marinelli and Dell Orto (1977) (self-esteem, sexuality
and sexual dysfunction). Intangibles are not easily quantified, and not
easily accounted for explicitly in economic models. Consequently, it
is not possible to compare the relative importance of economic and
intangible costs in a common unit of measurement such as money.
It is conceivable, however, that intangible costs are at least commensurate
with, and may well exceed, economic costs in terms of their impact
on both individual and societal welfare.
Transfer Payments
Smoking generates federal, state and local income and excise taxes
(Harvard University lnstitute for the Study of Smoking Behavior and
Policy 1985; Warner 1986). Taxes are neither benefits nor costs to
the society as a whole. Rather, taxes are a form of transfer payment
or reallocation of income from one segment of society to another.
Although taxes are a cost to the payer and a benefit to the ultimate
payee, the monetary value of the gains and losses offset each other
(except for the costs which may be incurred in pperating the system
for collection and disbursement). Taxes, however, undoubtedly have
an impact on the welfare of payers who lose and payees who gain.
Health insurance premiums paid by nonsmokers to cover the cost
of medical care for smoking-related diseases incurred by smokers are
transfer benefits to smokers, which are offset in monetary value by
the transfer costs to nonsmokers. They occur when health insurance
premiums do not reflect differential risks of disease to smokers and
nonsmokers. The cost of smoking-induced disease is the value of
resources devoted to medical care, whether or not paid entirely by
smokers who become ill, or subsidized in part or in whole by nonsmokers.
These are already counted among costs in terms of medical care
expenditures. Health care premiums and out-of-pocket costs for treatment
can be summed to obtain (approximately) the value of medical care
resources devoted to treating smoking-caused disease, but it is important
to avoid double counting. Nevertheless, it may be important to society
to know the amount of subsidies involved and the extent to which
nonsmokers subsidize medical care of smokers in order to decide
consciously whether the society wants these to take place. Real, but
as yet unexplored, benefits and costs of these subsidies are the welfare
gains to smokers and the welfare losses to nonsmokers.
Social Security, pension, and disability and sickness payments to
ill smokers subsidized by nonsmokers (and smokers who do not suffer
ill health effects), and payments forgone to smokers who die prematurely
to the benefit of nonsmokers are also payments which transfer control
over the use of resources from one segment of society to another. They
do not represent the monetary value of resource losses caused by
smoking and are not benefits or costs to society as a whole. Social
Security and disability payments do result in a redistribution of income
and welfare gains and losses and are important economic values. These
transfer payments can be important economic values in the social
decision-making process and assist in determining the societal response
to smoking activities.

500 D. P. Rice ct a!.
Studies of Economic Costs of the Health Effects of
Smoking
There are a number of studies of the costs of smoking, but no one
study has addressed all aspects (Shultz 1985). Alternative perspectives
of the costs of smoking differ in the focus of their concern, including:
(1) aggregate costs (e.g., medical care expenditures) due to past
smoking, i.e., prevalence-based costs;
(2) lifetime medical care expenditures of smokers versus nonsmokers
for all conditions and for specific conditions, including lung
cancer, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, i.e., incidence-based costs;
(3) tradeoffs between higher than average annual medical care use
and expenditures of smokers and longer life expectancy and
additional years of medical care for nonsmokers; and
(4) long-run reductions in smoking and its effect upon the economy,
including the future impact of changes in smoking patterns on
certain government receipts and expenditures, government deficit
or surplus, and employment.
Prevalence-based Social Costs
The majority of cost-of-smoking studies have been prevalence-based
analyses of social costs. They have examined costs to the society rather
than private costs (accruing to participants in market transactions,
such as smokers, for example) or external costs (falling on others such
as nonsmokers and business and government organizations). And they
have been concerned with the economic costs incurred in a period of
time (most often a year) as a result of the prevalence of smoking-
induced disease during this same period. Prevalence-based costs measure
the value of resources used (direct costs) or lost (indirect costs) during
a specified period of time (the base period), regardless of the time of
disease onset. The costs of the base-year manifestations or sequelae of
smoking-related disease, which may have had its onset in the base
year or any time prior to the base year, are included.
Prevalence-based costs assess the current costs of smoking. Current
morbidity, mortality, and economic costs result from many past years
of tobacco consumption, and current consumption will affect the future
The Economic Cacts of the llealth lif%ctt of Smoking, 1984 5501
health of smokers. Therefore, prevalence-based, or current, costs of
smoking represent the maximum annual value of resources that could
gradually be shifted out of care of smoking-induced illness and into
other social priorities if levels of smoking were to decrease. The impact
of changes in smoking patterns would take place over a period of
years, and the total amount saved would be the sum of a series of
annual reductions. Alternatively, if cessation of smoking produced a
larger, older population, the health care costs of smoking are resources
that could in whole or in part, depending on population dynamics,
provide care to an older population with longer lifetimes and lower
average annual per capita health care costs.
Simon (1968), Hedrich (1971), Williams and Justus (1974), Freeman
et al. (1976), Kristein (1977), Luce and Schweitzer (1978), Forbes
and Thompson (1983), Office of Technology Assessment (1985), and
Vogt and Schweitzer (1985) have all evaluated social costs of smoking.
The results of these studies cannot be compared, however, since the
types of costs, diseases, and categories of smokers included, and the
methodology employed vary among the studies.
The study reported in this article is prevalence-based and the results
will be compared with the studies by Luce and Schweitzer and the
Office of Technology Assessment after the presentation of our findings.
1 ncidence-ba.red Costs
In contrast to prevalence-based costs, which are the costs manifested
during a period of time, usually over a year, as a result of smoking-
induced disease, incidence-based costs are the lifetime costs expected
to occur in a group of smokers as a result of smoking-related disease.
An incidence-hased study by Oster, Colditz, and Kelly (1984a, 1984b)
estimates the direct (medical care expenditures) and indirect (lost
wages, salaries, and housekeeping services) economic costs of smoking
and benefits of quitting among persons who smoked in 1980 for three
smoking-related diseases: lung cancer, coronary heart disease, and
emphysema. The economic costs of smoking are the average additional
costs per smoker that will be incurred over the smoker's lifetime due
to these diseases if he/she continues to smoke throughout life at the
same level. Most of the total cost results from indirect losses rather
than medical care at younger ages, but direct costs increase dramatically
relative to indirect costs at older ages. This general pattern holds true

502 D.P. Rice et al. I The Economic Cau.r of the Health 1ffectr of Smokink, 1984 503
for women as well as men and for each of the three smoking-related
diseases.
Oster, Colditz, and Kelly conclude that a smoker, over his or her
lifetime, will require higher medical care expenditures for the three
smoking-related diseases than will nonsmokers. Costs increase with
the amount smoked, and are higher for men than women due to the
higher risks of disease experienced by men (except for chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease among heavy smokers 50 years of age and over).
Combining Oster, Colditz, and Kelly's projections of cost per smoker
and the prevalence of smoking, we estimate $500 billion as the present
value of lifetime costs of smoking by current smokers in 1980 for
the three diseases. The benefits of quitting are equal to the expected
costs of smoking-related diseases, adjusted to take into account that
ex-smokers' risks of disease slowly decline over a number of years
compared with the risks faced by nonsmokers.
Using a somewhat different model, Lewit (1983) analyzed the re-
duction in health care costs and savings in indirect costs that would
result from a gradual reduction in smoking-related disease in the
United States beginning in 1980. During the first 25 years, the sum
of health care costs saved was projected to be about $200 billion and
the gains in indirect costs were equally substantial although realized
more gradually.
Lifetime Medical Care Expenditures of Smokers versus
Nonsmokers
1.e4 and Schaub (1983) examine the impact of smoking on lifetime
medical care expenditures of Swiss males. They estimate that although
smokers have higher than average annual expenditures for medical
care, the longer expected lifetime of nonsmokers means that expected
lifetime medical care expenditures for males at age 35 who do not
smoke will be 7 percent higher than expenditures for 35-year-old
male smokers. -
Comparing the methods of Leu and Schaub and Oster, Colditz,
and Kelly to estimate lifetime medical care expenditures for smokers,
the former includes all medical conditions, while the latter considers
only the three smoking-related diseases. Leu and Schaub find lifetime
medical care expenditures of 35-year-old male Swiss smokers less than
expenditures for nonsmokers. Oster, Colditz, and Kelly report average
lifetime costs among smokers who quit are substantially reduced.
Although it appears that these two studies offer contradictory results,
closer examination of the assumptions, data, and methods indicate
that they may be logically consistent. On the one hand, nonsmokers,
because of their longer lifetimes, might have somewhat higher or
negligibly different lifetime health care expenditures over all diseases
than smokers who have higher annual per capita expenditures while
alive, but die earlier (Leu and Schaub 1983). On the other hand,
smokers have higher expected lifetime expenditures for lung cancer,
coronary heart disease, and emphysema because they are at higher
risk of developing those diseases than nonsmokers (Oster, Colditz,
and Kelly 1984a, 1984b).
The conclusion reached by Leu and Schaub, however, that lifetime
medical care expenditures of smokers are not higher, and possibly are
even lower than those of nonsmokers, may be premature for at least
two reasons. First, expenditures are not discounted. The effect of not
discounting is to overstate expenditures of nonsmokers since a con-
siderable portion of a nonsmoker's lifetime expenditures are incurred
in those extra years of life granted the nonsmoker, after the age at
which the smoker would die and cease to incur expenditures. This
can be a considerable period of time. For example, in 1977 a male
in the United States who died of cancer of the trachea, bronchus, or
lung, which is typically related to smoking, on the average died at
an age with an expected remaining lifetime of 14 years (Rice and
Hodgson 1981).
Furthermore, these expenditures will be highly concentrated in the
more distant years just before the time of death. Lubitz and Prihoda
(1984) have shown that, in 1978, Medicare decedents 67 years of age
or older represented only 6 percent of beneficiaries but received 27
percent of reimbursements for medical care. These reimbursements
were highly concentrated just before death, with one-fourth of reim-
bursements in the two years preceding death for care received in the
last month of life. Assuming a relatively modest discount rate of 3
percent, a dollar of medical care expenditures incurred by a nonsmoker
14 years in the future has a discounted value compared to a dollar
of expenditure during the last year of the smoker of only $.66. In
other words, a nonsmoker would have to incur $1.52 (52 percent
more) in medical care expenditures fourteen years after the expected
age of death of the smoker to offset a dollar of medical care in the
I

504 D.P. Rice et al. i The Economic Coru of the Health EJfectt of Smoking, 1984 505
smoker's last year of life. Medical care expenditures of nonsmokers
are deferred to the future and the appropriate comparison is between
the present discounted values of the respective streams of expected
annual medical care expenditures.
Second, Leu and Schaub assume relatively low rates of excess medical
care use and average annual medical care expenditures for smokers
versus nonsmokers. We found actual excess utilization of physicians'
services by smokers compared to nonsmokers 2.6 times that calculated
by Leu and Schaub and excess use of hospital care 7.7 times higher.
Lack of discounting and the possible underestimation of the amount
by which average annual use of medical care by smokers exceeds use
by nonsmokers means that l.eu and Schaub may have underestimated
lifetime medical expenditures of smokers relative to nonsmokers. The
amount of understatement is uncertain without further analysis, but
could be substantial. Nevertheless, the concept of a tradeoff between
higher than average annual medical care use and expenditures of
smokers and longer life expectancy and additional years of medical
care for nonsmokers is valid and an important aspect of analysis of
costs of smoking. The analysis begun by Leu and Schaub should be
continued in order to ascertain this relationship with greater certainty.
Impact of Long-run Reductions in Smoking on the Economy
Studies have examined the future impact of changes tn smoking patterns
on certain economic variables, including government receipts and
expenditures, government deficit or surplus, and employment.
Atkinson and Townsend (1977) examined the long-run impact in
Great Britain of an increase in cigarette taxes and a reduction in
smoking on government tax receipts and certain transfer payments
and revenues. They found that a 40 percent reduction in the number
of cigarettes smoked, achieved by phasing in from 1977 to 1980 an
increase in the cigarette tax, restrictions on advertising, gift coupons
and sport sponsorship, and a health education program, would mean
a net increase in population of 250,000 persons in 1998, with marginal
change in National Health Service usage. By the year 2000, they
project a substantial increase in annual tax revenues and a small net
annual reduction in government spending, with savings in sickness
benefits and widows' pensions more than offsetting extra costs of
retirement programs and health education efforts.
Gori and Richter (1978) use the Wharton long-cerm econonietric
model to forecast certain economic effects of elimination of the minimum
preventable portion of major causes of death, starting in 1975. Population
changes resulting from reductions in mortality are introduced into
the Wharton long-term model, and their effects on various economic
indicators are forecast every five years from 19$Q to 2000, as mortality
from preventable diseases is gradually eliminated between 1975 and
2000. Gori and Richter estimate reductions in mortality races resulting
from a policy of disease prevention based on the difference between
United States rates and the next-to-the-lowest rates observed in in-
dustrialized countries for five major causes of death, including car-
diovascular renal diseases, cancer, accidents, diseases of the respiratory
system, and diabetes. The next-to-the-lowest rates were used in order
to give conservative estimates. Smoking is only one of the factors
responsible for observed differences in mortality; others include diet,
alcohol and drug abuse, occupational hazards, air and water pollution.
The relevant aspect of this analysis for our purposes is the modeling
employed, which could be applied to estimate effects of reductions
in mortality from smoking.
A key assumption which greatly affects the projections is their
restriction of the labor force to persons 16 to 65 years of age. The
impact of this by the year 2000 is to increase government transfer
payments by about 9 percent over what the Wharton model forecasts
in the absence of disease prevention. Furthermore, under this scenario
the federal deficit is more than 50 percent larger, and there are
relatively minor increases in the gross national product (GNP), civilian
labor force, and unemployment.
Although the proportion of elderly in the labor force has been
gradually declining in recent years, this assumption of no labor-force
participation by persons over 65 years of age can be questioned since
23 percent of this age group had income from earnings in 1980 (Upp
1983). Current thinking leans toward raising the retirement age;
starting in 2000 the age at which full Social Security retirement
benefits are payable will gradually rise until it reaches 67. Reduced
benefits will still be payable at age 62, but the reduction will be
larger than it is now. If private pension systems follow the lead of
Social Security and raise the age of eligibility for full benefits, incentives
will be in place for more workers to work past age 65. The net effect
on age at retirement of higher ages for full benefits and the desire of
large numbers of workers to retire early is uncertain.
I

`I'he Economic C.'ort.r of the Health tiffectt of SnrokinR, 1984 507
So6
D. P. Rice et al.
Removing this constraint, Gori and Richter find quite different
results for some variables in 2000. With disease prevention, the
Wharton model predicts a federal surplus compared to a projected
deficit in the absence of disease prevention, with a 65 percent difference
in the two estimates. More modest increases in the GNP and government
receipts and a much smaller increase in transfer payments are predicted.
But with this latter assumption about labor-force participation, much
larger increases in unemployment and unemployment benefits result.
Gori and Richter rightly caution that the trends shown and not
the numbers are important. In any case, for the purpose of our concern
with longer-run reductions in smoking and their impact upon the
economy, it is important to note that the direction of change in
important economic variables is uncertain. The various models can
be quite sensitive to assumptions about key parameters, and a good
deal more analysis is required before we can be confident about long-
run effects of changes in smoking patterns.
Estimated Economic Costs of the Health Effects of
Smoking
Previous studies of the economic costs of smoking, employing the
prevalence-based approach, applied global proportions attributable to
smoking to illness costs (Hedrick 1971; Luce and Schweitzer 1978).
For example, Luce and Schweitzer applied the following smoking
percentages to updated cost-of-illness estimates originally published
by Cooper and Rice in 1976: neoplasms-20 percent, circulatory
system-25 percent, and respiratory system-40 percent. For this
article, we have refined the estimates by using the epidemiologic
methodology of "attributable risk" to calculate the direct (personal
health care expenditures) and indirect (morbidity and mortality) costs
associated with cigarette smoking.
Attributable risk is "the maximum proportion of a disease that can
be attributed to a characteristic or etiologic factor" (Lilienfeld and
Lilienfeld 1980) and assumes that other factors influencing the occurrence
of smoking-related diseases are equally distributed among smokers
and nonsmokers. But smokers differ from nonsmokers in certain genetic,
social, and economic characteristics which may contribute to disease.
The prevalence of smoking 'varies by race (more blacks smoke than
whites), education (fewer college graduates smoke than persons with
only some high school), income (males with lower income smoke
more, while the opposite holds for women), and occupation (blue-
collar workers smoke more than professional or technical workers)
(Vogt 1983; Warner 1983). If factors known to be related to health
status and smoking habits are not controlled, the impact of smoking
on health and the costs of smoking may be overstated.
An interesting attempt to overcome this problem by Leu and Schaub
(1983) analyzed smoking and medical care expenditures using three
types of persons: smokers, nonsmokers, and nonsmoking smokers.
The latter is a statistical construction having the smoking habits of
a nonsmoker but like a smoker in other respects. Leu and Schaub
assumed that 65 percent of smokers' excess mortality was due to
smoking and 35 percent to other characteristics of smokers. Although
it would be important to account for differences in mortality and
morbidity between smokers and nonsmokers not due to smoking, the
empirical basis for doing so is not readily apparent, and the Leu and
Schaub assumption is arbitrary.
The detailed methodology and sources of data for estimating the
attributable risks for medical care utilization, morbidity, and mortality
and their application to the direct and indirect costs of illness are
detailed in the methodology appendix at the end of this article.
Summary results are presented below.
Disability and Medical Care Utilization Differentials
Smokers are sicker and require more medical care than those who do
not smoke. Table I records a comparison of the disability and medical
care utilization rates for persons 17 years and over who ever smoked
(current and former smokers) and those who never smoked, by age
and sex; the data are from the Smoking Supplement of the 1979
National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Higher rates in all the
measures are reported for smokers compared with nonsmokers, ranging
from 6 percent for physician visits to 72 percent for persons unable
to work or keep house. The differentials between male smokers and
nonsmokers are especially high. For example, the number of men
reporting that they are unable to work is 88 percent higher for smokers
compared with nonsmokers. For male smokers, hospital days are 63
percent higher, restricted-activity days are 55 percent higher, and

TABLE 1
Disability and Medical Care Utilization by Cigarette Smoking Status, Sex and Age: United States,
1979
Both sexes Mala Females
A ed
Smoking 17 ~ean
status and over
17-44
years
45-64
years Aged
65 years 17 years
and over and over
17-44
years
45-64
years Aged
65 years 17 years
and over and over
17-44
years
45-64
years
65 years
and over
RESTRICTED-ACTIVITY DAYS PER PERSON PER YEAR
All persons' 22.3
Ever smoked2 24.2
Never smoked 20.3 15.1
17.9
12.1 26.3
28.8
22.6 42.8
41.4
43.9 20.0
22.9
14.8 13.7
15.8
10.7 24.4
27.5
14.3 39.4
39.8
39.5 24.4
25.8
23.4 16.5
20.4
13.1 28.2
30.7
25.9 45.2
44.2
45.3
BED-DISABILITY DAYS PER PERSON PER YEAR
All pe:sons' 7.5
Ever smoked2 7.8
Never smoked 7.2 5.7
6.5
4.7 8.1
8.8
7.1 13.8
11.7
15.4 6.1
6.7
4.8 4.3
4.8
3.5 7.1
8.1
3.6 12.1
11.1
14.5 8.9
9.3
8.6 6.9
8.4
5.7 9.1
9.8
8.5 15.0
12.7
15.7
WORK-LOSS DAYS PER CURRENTLY EMPLOYED PERSON PER YEAR
All persons' 4.9
Ever smoked2 5.4
Never smoked 4.3 5.0
5.8
4.0 4.7
4.6
5.1 -
-
- 4.5
5.0
3.6 4.5
5.2
3.4 4.3
4.6
3.3 -
-
- 5.5
6.2
5.0 5.6
6.9
4.5 5.4
4.6
6.3
NUMBER OF PERSONS UNABLE TO WORK OR KEEP HOUSE3 PER 100 PERSONS4
All persons' 5.0 1.1
Ever smoked2 6.2 1.3
Never smoked 3.6 0.8 6.8
9.0
3.2 17.2
22.1
13.3 7.9
9.4
5.0 1.7
2.0
1.2 11.4
12.7
6.8 28.6
30.6
24.7 2.5
2.0
2.9 0.5
0.5
0.5 2.6
3.5
1.8 9.1
7.2
9.8
HOSPITAL DAYS PER PERSON PER YEAR
All persons' 1.2 0.8 1.4 2.7 1.1 0.6 1.5 2.5 1.4 0.9 1.3 2.9
Ever smoked2 1.4 0.9 1.6 2.9 1.3 0.8 1.7 2.7 1.4 1.1 1.5 3.2
Never smoked 1.1 0.6 1.1 2.6 0.8 0.5 1.0 2.2 1.3 0:8 1.2 2.7
PHYSICIAN VISITS PER PERSON PER YEAR
All persons' 5.0 4.5 5.2 6.8 4.2 3.4 4.7 6.5 5.8 5.6 5.5 6.9
Ever smoked2 5.2 4.7 5.3 7.0 4.4 3.6 4.9 6.5 6.2 6.0 5.9 7.9
Never smoked 4.9 4.4 4.9 6.6 3.7 3.1 4.1 6.6 5.6 5.3 5.3 6.6
Soxrre: Smoking Supplement of the 1979 National Health Interview Survey.
Natc: These estimates will be slightly different than other published National Health Interview
Survey estimates because these are computed
from the one-third sample of persons who were given the smoking supplement. In addition, the
variables "unable to work/keep house" and
"hospital days" reflect slight definicional modifications from other published estimates.
' Excludes persons of unknown smoking status.
= Includes current and former smokers.
3 Includes only females keeping house.
4 Number of persons unable to work or keep house is nor adjusted by labor-force participation,
employment, or housekeeping rates.
TIMN 305890

510 D. P. Rice et al.
bed-disability and work-loss days are about 40 percent higher. The
differentials in these disability and medical care utilization measures
for female smokers compared with nonsmoking women are lower,
ranging from 8 to 24 percent. For women reporting that they are
unable to work or keep house, the rates are higher for the nonsmokers,
except for those 45 to 64 years of age.
Similar patterns are seen by age. The disability and medical care
utilization rates for smokers under age 65, especially males, are sig-
nificantly higher than for nonsmokers. For those aged 65 and over,
the differentials are not as large and for several measures (bed-disability
days for men and women, restricted-activity days for women and
women unable to keep house), the rates are slightly higher for non-
smokers. It is possible that some older persons suffer from a variety
of chronic illnesses regardless of their smoking history, resulting in
slightly higher disability rates. Also, these rates increase with age for
smokers, and nonsmokers aged 65 and over tend to be older than
smokers in the same age group.
Morbidity and Medical Care Attributable Risks
The availability of morbidity and medical care utilization rates by
types of condition and smoking status enabled us to estimate for the
first time the proportion of the illness measure or type of medical
care used that can be attributed to smoking. We focused on the three
major diagnostic categories most clearly associated with smoking-
neoplasms, diseases of the circulatory system, and diseases of the
respiratory system. Thus, 30 percent of the men and 17 percent of
the women .17 years of age and over who suffer from these three major
conditions and who report they are unable to work or keep house
may be attributed to smoking (appendix table 1). Almost 3 out of
10 hospital days of care for them are estimated to be associated with
smoking and the proportion is higher for men and for those under
age 65. Almost I out of 5 visits by men and 1 out of 15 visits by
women to physicians outside of hospitals may be attributed to smoking,
while I out of 7 days lost from work is associated with smoking.
Direct Costs
Direct costs of smoking are the amounts spent for hospital care,
physician and other professional services, drugs, and nursing home
Tht Economic Goit.c of the Health Lffect.r of Smoking, 1984 51 1
TARI.E 2
Direct Costs: Total Personal Health Care Expenditures for Neoplasms and
Diseases of the Circulatory and Respiratory Systems, and Amount
Attributed to Smoking by Sex and Age: United States, 1980
Age Both sexes Males Females
TOTAL EXPENUITURESI (millions)
All ages $62,198 $27,675 $34,523
Under 65 years 32,631 15,830 16,801
65 years and over 29,568 11,845 17,722
AMOUNT A't'TR18lrr'F:1) TO SMOKING
(millions)
All ages
;14, 384
$8,220
$6,164
Under 65 years 8,734 5,366 3,368
65 years and over 5,650 2,854 2,796
PERCENTAGF, OF TOrAL A7TRIE-
UTEC) TO SMOKING
All ages 23.1% 29.7% 17.9%
Under 65 years 26.8 33.9 20.0
65 years and over 19.1 24.1 15.8
Notr. Numbers and percentages may not add to totals due to rounding.
1 From HodKson and Kopstein (1984).
care in behalf of current and former smokers. The data on attributable
risks for medical care services enabled us to estimate the direct costs
of smoking much more accurately than previous cost estimates. These
factors were applied to personal health care expenditures for these
three major diseases. Direct costs of smoking total $14.4 billion in
1980, accounting for almost one-fourth of the total expenditures for
personal health care for neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory and
respiratory systems (table 2). About $8.2 billion, or' 57 percent, are
the costs of smoking for men; $8.7 billion, or 61 percent, are for
persons under age 65 (figure 1).
Table 3 records the direct costs of smoking by type of care. Hospital
care accounts for the largest share--69 percent of the total. Professional
services and nursing home care each account for 13 percent of the
total, and 5 percent are for drugs.

SIZ
Neoptesms. dis.ases of
the circulatory end
r.spbefory systems.
$5.4
Under 66 66 years
years and over
Malet
1).1'. Rice el ul.
82.9
Under 65 66 years
years and over
Females
FIG. 1. Direct costs of smoking by age and sex, 1980 (in billions of dollars).
Morbidity Coru
Morbidity costs are the value of losses in output for people who are
ill and disabled and unable to work. We use average earnings by age
and sex and impute a value for housekeeping services for women who
are unable to keep house because of illness and disability. The attributable
risks shown in appendix table I were applied to person-years lost and'
to total morbidity costs for the three major diseases as described in
the methodology appendix. A total of 528,000 person-years are estimated
to be lost to productivity by current and former smokers, at a total
cost of $7.4 billion (table 4 and figure 2). Fifty-six percent of the
person-years lost and 72 percent of the morbidity smoking costs are
attributed to men. The distribution by age shows that 85 percent of
the person-years lost and 96 percent of the morbidity costs of smoking
are for persons under age 65, reflecting the higher attributable risks
for those under age 65, and their higher earnings.
Mortality Co.rt.r
As indicated earlier, previous studies of the economic costs of smoking
applied global proportions attributed to smoking to illness costs. For
'1'he liamorntr (Y the Ilealth 1 ffI7.r of Sntnkinl;, 1<)1{4
~
N
4.
o
T O
'D
-
W ~
Y }I
a
~
~
>
D
v ~
~ T
~..1
`
~
~o
v...
U q
~ YT
~
r L\ v1
~~~r oo
~
r~ M N p
N ..
N ^
« N
~ N
v. p~p N
DD M t er N
N ^
M~'r O co
N
N o0
~ p N
O 00
~D r'- O ~,n0 N
© N ., ^
&
O O, 00 O,
M
8 Q 00 ~6 N
~
O v v O O
O. M v
g 00
~
O Ni o0
$ ^o o:
~
O ~D O -O
00 1_ p pp
87 N
O N ~ v p
O
O 00
O ^ v
S^~
^
p p
00 v
po N
O 0~
v
^ ~'
^ N Op N M
N
o V 00 M {
O N p M ~
O 00
«^
~~~^'O
'0
O 7 O 00 ^
8$1;
72
z
0
z
513
I

514
D. P. Rice et al.
A
~
0
E
w
~.}N N
~O O \0
r~ ~
W~~
O O
N N NO~O
N N~
N
79 M
~ ~
CU 0
00
g~
U
-\0 rn C~ Ia' op
\oroo
U
J. (T
~ y~
N00.`O'-
OMpN N N -
u '2 E ~
O, 00
0 N
Q T X
S
M
~
O\0
~
OoOO~
N N ^'
'~p C ~ p
M ~O 1~ M ^' N
N U W] N N
M
O, C
d
~
00 \G \O 00 N
~
z
~ E
W
\O
+ M
N N
w
i,
O N
~ .-
O M N
U:ji ~ O Mt~ M O M V~ ~D ^^
~
~ E
~.
1~ ~ N Q, M\L1
N N N N N
V')
0
o
a CW
c
.
"
<
0~c v
c
x
s
N N M
N'G' 00
~N
N~ Q
.o 10 0
u N r'
7
4
0 b
N
M y
F+
u y
N
0
0 0
y 0
00
rn
The Economic Co.uu of the Health Ejfect.r of Smoking, 1984
Sex
P.r.on- Morbldlty
y..r.lo.t co.tU
Penon-
y..rs toot
Age
Morbidity
cott.
FIG. 2. Morbidity costs of smoking for neoplasms and diseases
circulatory and respiratory systems, by sex and age, 1980.
515
of the
this article we refined the mortality costs by estimating the attributable
risks for .19 specific causes of death for males and females based on
weighted mortality ratios from 4 prospective studies on smoking as
described in the appendix. The attributable risks of cancer mortality
from smoking among men ranges from 81 percent for cancer of the
trachea, bronchus, and lung to 18 percent for stomach cancer; for
women the range is from 56 percent for cancer of the esophagus to
13 percent for kidney cancer (appendix table 4). Not surprisingly,
the attributable risks for emphysema and chronic bronchitis are very
high-$7 percent for males and 72 percent for females. The attributable
risks for aortic aneurysm are also high--66 percent for males and 49
percent for females.
As indicated earlier, for mortality the cost or value to society of
all deaths attributed to smoking is the product of the number of
deaths attributed to smoking and the expected values of an individual's
future earnings, with sex and age taken into account. This method
of derivation takes into consideration life expectancy for different age
and sex groups, changing patterns of earnings at successive ages,
varying labor-force participation rates, imputed values of housekeeping

D.l'. 12ice el ul.
'!'br liranontir uf Ihe lleul/h I fferl., r f,t'nnoking, 1984
517
services, and the appropriate discount rate to convert a stream of costs
or benefits into its present worth (Rice, Hodgson, and Kopstein 1985).
We used two discount rates: 4 and 6 percent. We also estimated the
person-years lost, based on the number of years remaining at the time
of death, from the 1980 life tables published by the National Center
for Health Statistics (1984).
Table 5 records the number of deaths and person-years lost to
productivity for all causes of death attributed to smoking by age and
cause of death., Mortality costs at 4 and 6 percent by age, and cause
of death are shown in table 6. (Similar data by sex are available from
the authors.) The following are highlights of our findings:
A total of 270,269 deaths in 1980 were due to smoking, resulting
in 3.9 million person-years lost;
Premature deaths from smoking cost the nation $16.8 billion in
1980;
About 69 percent of the premature deaths and person-years lost
arc attributable to smoking among men. Men account for 80
percent of the costs, reflecting the higher risks for men and their
higher earnings compared with women;
About 31 percent of the deaths attributed to smoking occur for
those aged 45 to 64; this age group accounted for almost half
of the person-years lost and 70 percent of the mortality costs
(figure 3);
More than half the premature deaths from smoking are caused
by diseases of the circulatory system. Almost two-fifths are deaths
due to malignant neoplasms. Smoking-related neoplasms, however,
represent a higher proportion of person-years lost (42 percent)
and of costs (46 percent), because smokers who die from cancer
are usually in the younger age groups;
Of the 1.5 million deaths for persons 20 years and over in 1980
due to neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory and respiratory
systems combined, 17 percent are attributed to smoking; 19
percent of the 20.9 million person-years lost and 22 percent of
total mortality costs are attributed to smoking (table 7).
dcher estimates of the number of deaths attributed to smoking are
higlici tliari otits (ltavenholt 1985). Our estimates are conservative
® 20,2, years
®
I6-61 years ~ 66.74 yars M 76 years or over
3% 7%
18%
31%
48%
70%
39i
FIG. 3. Mortality losses attributed to smoking: Distribution of deaths,
person-years lost, and costs, by age, 1980,
for several reasons: We have not taken into account the adverse effects
of passive smoking, risks of abortions, stillbirths and neonatal deaths,
or deaths under age 20 that might be associated with smoking. There
is a growing body of literature that has concluded that involuntary
exposure to tobacco smoke represents a significant public health problem
resulting in premarure deaths (Repace and Lowrey 1985; Garland et
al. 1985; , National Research Council 1986). The prospective studies
upon which the attributable risks were estimated were performed
several years ago and did not attempt to measure the adverse effects
of smoking on these additional health problems, or certain current
occupational and environmental hazards that greatly increase the risk
of death for smokers. The studies were based on old smoking habits.
For women, whose smoking habits have approached those of men
only in the past decades, the earlier epidemiologic data may well be
outdated. Women currently suffering from lung cancer, whose smoking
histories date back two or three decades, may have smoked more
intensively than women who were in the earlier prospective studies
upon whom the attributable risk estirriates were based.
I

TABLE 5
Mortality Losses: Deaths and Person-years Lost to Productivity for All Causes of Death Attributed to
Smoking by Age and Cause of
Death: United Stares, 1980
Number of deaths Person-yesrs lost (in thousands)
75
Aged Aged years
20 years 20-44 45-64 65-74 . 75 years 20 years 20-44 45-64 65-74 and
Cause of death and over years years years and over and over years years years over
To'r,u. 270,269 7,130 84,700 73,426 105,013 3.940 276 t,872 998 795
MALIGNANT NEOPLASMS 103,170 2,804 40,295 35,236 24,835 1,674 108 894 475 196
Trachea, bronchus, lung 74.705 1,787 30,195 26,462 16,261 1,215 66 665 354 129
Larynx 2,603 46 1,115 903 539 42 2 24 12 4
Lip, oral caviry, pharyn: 5,382 236 2,391 1,572 1,183 93 9 54 22 9
Esophagus 4,837 110 2,079 1.510 1,138 80 4 46 21 9
Bladder 3,612 23 613 1,146 1,830 43 1 13 15 14
Kidney 1,731 69 655 551 456 28 3 15 7 4
Pancreas 5,228 105 1,652 1,753 1,718 78 4 37 24 14
Stomach 3,142 98 805 921 1,318 47 4 19 13 11
Cervix 1.930 330 790 418 392 47 15 22 7 4
DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATORY '
SYSTEM 141.546 3,796 39,718 30,687 67,345 1,948 146 875 420 506
Ischemic heart disease 86,036 2,585 31,684 18.324 33,443 1,283 96 692 246 248
Cerebrovucular disease 22,637 444 2,551 4,411 15,231 262 19 61 64 118
Hypertension 5,425 151 1,119 1,326 2,829 73 6 26 19 22
Aortic aneurysm 8,612 1,140 1,522 2,957 3,993 107 6 32 39 31
Atherosclerosis 8,993 16 376 1,077 7,524 78 1 8 15 54
Cardiac arrest 9,843 460 2,466 2,592 4,325 144 19 56 36 33
DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY
SYSTEM 22.917 412 4,063 6,799 11,643 282 17 88 91 85
Emphysema, chronic bronchitis 14.098 112 2,989 5,230 5,767 184 4 64 71 44
InAuenu, pneumonia 8.819 300 1,071 1,569 5.876 98 13 24 21 40
OTHER CAUSES OF DEATH 2,636 118 624 704 1,190 37 5 14 10 9
Respiratory tuberculosis 536 35 182 150 169 8 1 4 2 1
Ulcer 2,100 83 442 554 1,021 29 3 10 8 8
tiate: Numbers may nor idd to rorals due to rounding.
I&
TINLN 305895

TABLE 6
Mortality Costs: Discounted Productivity Losses for All Causes of Death Attributed to Smoking by
Discount Rate, Age and Cause of
Death: United States, 1980 (in millions)
Discounted at 4 percent Discounted at 6 percent
Aged
ears
20 20-44 65-74 75 years Aged
20 years 20-44 65-74 75 years
Cause of death y
and over yeus 45 -64 years years and over and over years 45 -6d years years and over
mrAr.. $16,814 $3,017 $11,811 $1,565 $420 $14,836 $2,439 $10,565 $1,435 $398
MALIGNANT :VEOPLASMS 7,687 1,131 5,684 753 118 6,803 919 5,082 691 110
Trachea, bronchus, and lung 5,631 733 4,261 559 78 4,999 599 3,813 513 73
Larynx 202 20 161 19 2 180 16 144 18 2
Lip, oral cavity, pharynx 502 103 359 35 5 441 83 321 32 5
Esophagus 382 47 297 33 5 339 38 265 31 5
Bladder 113 9 74 23 7 102 7 67 21 7
Kidney 140 30 96 12 2 123 24 85 11 2
Pancreas 316 44 226 38 8 281 35 202 35 8
Stomach 172 39 106 21 6 150 31 94 20 6
Cervix 227 108 105 12 3 189 85 90 11 2
DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATORY
SYSTEM
8,086
1,648
5,527
656
255
7,118
1,330
4,946
601
241
Ischernic heart disease 6,117 1,133 4,475 382 127 5,400 922 4,007 351 120
Cerebrovascular disease 667 177 328 102 60 580 140 290 93 56
Hypertension 258 63 153 31 12 225 50 136 28 li
Aortic aneurysm 325 65 183 60 17 288 52 165 55 16
Atherosclerosis 96 6. 44 23 23 87 5 40 21 21
Cardiac arrest 623 203 345 58 17 536 160 308 53 16
DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY
SYSTEM
878
185
508
142
43
775
149
455
130
41
Emphysema, chronic bronchitis 534 47 352 110 26 479 38 316 101 24
Influenza, pneumonia 344 138 156 32 18 296 111 139 29 17
OTFIER CAUSES OF DEATH 163 52 91 15 5 141 42 81 14 4
Respiratory tuberculosis 50 16 30 3 1 44 13 27 3 1
Ulcer 113 36 61 12 4 98 29 54 11 4
vote: Numbers may not add to totals 3ue to rounding
TIMN 305896

TABLE 7
Mortality Losses: Deaths, Person-years Lost to Productivity, and Mortality Costs for Neoplasms" and
Diseases of the Circulatory and
Respiratory Systems, and Amount Attributed to Smoking by Sex and Age: United States, 1980
Mortality costs (in millions)
Deaths' Person-years (in thousands) Discounted at 4 percent Discounted at 6 percent
Age
Both sexes
Males
Females Both
srxes
Males
Females Both
sexes
Males
Females Both
sexes
Males
Females
TOTAL
Aged
20 years
and over
1,535,184
806,485
728,699
20,918
10,700
10,218
$75,069
$48,738
$26,331
$65,470
$42,724
$22,746
20-64 years 376,464 235,062 141,402 9,449 5,387 4,062 63,017 43,064 19,953 54,367 37,466 16,901
65 years
and over
1,158,720
571,423
587,297
11,469
5,313
6,156
12,052
5,674
6,378
11,103
5,258
5,845
AMOUNT ATTRIBUTED TO SMOKING
Aged
20 years
and over
267,633
185,832
81,801
3,904
2,697
1,206
16,651
13,369
3,282
14,696
11,844
2,851
20-64 years 91,088 71,364 19,724 2,130 1,581 550 14,683 12,097 2,587 12,881 10,666 2,215
65 years
and over
176,545
114,468
62,077
1,773
1,117
656
1,967
1,272
694
1,814
1,179
635
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL ATTRIBUTED TO SMOKING
Aged
20 years
and over
17.4%
23.0%
11.2%
18.7%
25.2%
11.8%
22.2%
27.4%
12.5%
22.4%
27.7%
12.5%
20-64 years 24.2 30.4 13.9 22.5 29.3 13.5 23.3 28.1 13.0 23.7 28.5 13.1
65 years -
and over 15.2 20.0 10.6 15.5 21.0 10.7 16.3 22.4 10.9 - 16.3 22.4 10.9
Sose: Numbers and percentages may not add to totals due co rounding.
Excludes deaths for which age is not available.
TIMN 305897

524
1).P. Knr er a!.
Total Economic Costs of the FI ealth Effects of Smoking
The total economic costs of smoking amount to $38.6 billion in
1980. Direct costs account for 37 percent, morbidity costs for 19
percent and mortality costs 44 percent (table 8). Not surprisingly,
the economic costs of smoking for men are considerably higher than
for women-$27 billion and $11.6 billion, respectively. For men
mortality costs are highest-50 percent of the total; for women, direct
costs are highest---53 percent of the total economic costs.
Smoking clearly has severe consequences for the nation, amounting
to 8.5 percent of the total economic costs of all illnesses in 1980.
Direct costs of smoking account for 6.8 percent of the total direct
costs, and indirect costs represent almost 10 percent of the total
indirect costs for all illnesses. It is evident that people who smoke
die earlier, and their productivity losses are very high.
We updated our figures to 1984 and the costs are even more
staggering-S53-7 billion in 1984 (figure 4). To obtain 1984 values,
direct costs were adjusted by the percentage change in total personal
health care expenditures as reported by the Health Care Financing
Administration. Indirect costs were adjusted by the percentage change
in average weekly earnings as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Direct costs represent a larger share of the total-43 percent compared
with 37 percent in 1980 because medical care costs have been rising
faster than earnings that are the basis for estimating indirect costs.
Again, mortality costs are relatively higher for males and direct costs
are highest for females.
Comparison with Other Cost-of-smoking Studies
The studies by Luce and Schweitzer (1978) and the Office of Technology
Assessment (1985).(OTA) also estimate medical care expenditures and
the value of lost productivity from morbidity and premature mortality
from smoking-induced disease. Their methodology is similar to that
of the study reported in this article. Each of the three studies estimated
costs of smoking by applying attributable risks to direct and indirect
costs of neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseases. The costs
of neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseases from which the
costs of smoking are derived are consistent. Luce and Schweitzer
inflated Cooper and Rice's (1976) estimates of costs in 1972 to 1976;
'/'he licononiic Coiti o/ the Flea/th F,ffects of ,Smoking, 1984 525
0 Direct costs
$53.7 Billion
All persons
Q Morbidity costs ® Mortality costs
$36.5 Billion
Males
$17.2 Billion
Fetnales
FIG. 4. Economic costs of smoking, by type of cost and sex, 1984.
OTA inflated HodKson and Kopstein (1984) and Rice, Hodgson, and
Kopstein's (1985) estimates of 1980 costs to 1985; and this article
utilized Hodgson and Kopstein (1984) and Rice, Hodgson, and Kopstein
(1985) cost estimates. The principal sources of variation among the
studies are the estimates of attributable risks.
Luce and Schweitzer used attributable risks for three major diagnostic
groups of diceases---neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseastsr--
from Boden's (1976) study of the economic impact of environmental
disease on health care delivery. For each major diagnostic group, the
attributable risk was applied to total direct and indirect costs for that
disease to estimate the amount due to smoking. Boden does not
indicate how these attributable risks were derived. OTA improved
upon this method by attributing costs of smoking according to the
estimated proportion of smoking-related deaths for each disease by
age and sex. By this method OTA accounted for the influence of
declining attributable risks, declining per capita indirect costs, and
increasing per capita health expenditures with increasing age. For our
estimates, we introduce an additional refinement by estimating health
care costs and indirect morbidity losses related to smoking from
differences in medical care use and time lost from productive activity
between smokers and nonsmokers observed in the National Health
Interview Survey, rather than by differences in mortality which is
characteristic of earlier studies.
I

TABLE 8
Economic Costs of Smoking for All Diseases Attributed to Smoking by Type of Cost, Age, and Sex:
United States,
1980 and 1984
1980 1984
Indirect costs Indirect costs
;ge and sex Total Direct costs Morbidity Mortaliry Total Direct costs Morbidity Mortality
°.MOt;NT (in millions)
~TH SEXES $38,579 $14,384 $7,381 $16,814 $53,711 $23,338 $9,286 $21,087
Under 65 years 30,678 8,734 7,116 14,828 40,241 12,872 8,935 18,434
65 years and
over
7,899
5,650
264
1,985
13,471
10,466
351
2,654
MALES TOTAL 27,022 8,220 5,301 13,501 36,494 13,376 6,501 16,617
Under 65 years
65 years and
over 22,669
4
353 5,366
854
2 5,086
215 12,217
1,284 29,060
7,434 7,899
5,477 6,220
281 14,941
1,676
G
FEMALES TOTAL ,
11
557 ,
164
6 2,080 3,313 17,217 9,962 2,785 4,470 A
^
Under 65 years ,
8,009 ,
3,368
2,030
2,611
11,180
4,973
2,715
3,492 ~
e
~
65 years and
over
3,547
2,796
50
701
6,037
4,989
70
978 a
PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION BY TYPE OF COST
BOTH SEXES 100.0% 37.3% 19. 1% 43.6% 100.09~C 43.5% 17.3% 39.3% ~
Under 65 years 100.0 28.5 23.2 48.3 100.0 32.0 22.2 45
8 rn
65 years and . 0
a
over
100.0
71.5
3.3
25.1
100.0
77.7
2.6
19.7 .1.
3
M.+LSS TOTAL 100.0 30.4 19.6 50.0 100.0 36.7 17.8 45.5
Under 65 years 100.0 23.7 22.4 53.9 100.0 27.2 21.4 51.4
65 years and
over
100.0
65.6
4.9
29.5
100.0
73.7
3.8
22.5
FEMALES TOTAL 100.0 53.3 18.0 28.7 100.0 57.9 16.2 26.0 ~
Under 65 years 100.0 42.1 25.3 32.6 100.0 44.5 24.3 31.2 :z
65 years and z
~
over 100.0 78.8 1.4 19.8 100.0 82.6 1.2 16.2 a
`
N
ote. Numbers and percentages might not add to totals due to rounding. ..
~
Discounted at 4 percent.
~
c.;
~
~
A-
~
~
~
x
TIMN 305899 N
~

528 D.P. Rice el ul. ~ The lirorroruir l;o.cli of Ihe !!eu!!h lJfer1.r of Snrokini;, /c)N4 52c
Converting the costs estimated by these three studies to 1984 values
(table 9) facilitates comparison of the different results. Our results
are quite close to those of Luce and Schweitzer. The principal differences
are with the OTA results. OTA estimates indirect costs to be 40
percent higher because of a higher estimate of mortality and a younger
age distribution of the deaths due to smoking. In the OTA study
314,000 deaths were attributed to smoking versus 270,000 in our
study. Deaths under 65 years of age, when indirect costs of mortality
are higher, represented 41 percent of deaths from smoking in the
OTA study compared with 34 percent in our study.
The apparent similarities of these estimates mask substantial differences
in estimated costs of the three component diseases-neoplasms and
circulatory and respiratory diseases. There is, in general, a lack of
consistency among the studies in terms of the magnitudes of the
estimated proportions for a given medical condition. Although OTA
and we calculate similar proportions for circulatory diseases (13 and
14 percent) and Luce and Schweitzer and OTA are very close on
respiratory disease (40 and 41 percent), for the most part results of
the three studies are quite different. The three studies differ in their
application of the attributable risks to the direct and indirect costs
of neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseases, which increases
the differences in results for specific diseases.
Although total costs in the three studies are fairly close, with the
low estimate by Luce and Schweitzer being 85 percent of the high
estimate by OTA, this is achieved through rather wide disparities in
estimated costs of the various medical conditions which partly cancel
out in the aggregate. The substantial amount by which OTA's estimated
cost of neoplasms exceeds Luce and Schweitzer's estimate, coupled
with larger costs of circulatory and respiratory diseases estimated by
Luce and Schweitzer, results in nearly equal estimates of total costs.
We prefer our estimates of health care expenditures and morbidity
costs associated with smoking because they are based upon observed
differences between smokers and nonsmokers in health care utilization
and disability, including, for example, work-loss days and persons
unable to work. Unfortunately, sample sizes prohibit estimation of
costs by medical condition; it may be possible to overcome this by
combining several years of data from the National Health Interview
Survey. With respect to mortality costs, we estimated separate at-
tributable risks for males and females for each specific cause of death
TABLE 9
Economic Costs of and Percentage of Deaths from Neoplasms and Diseases
of the Circulatory and Respiratory Systems Attributed to Smoking;
Three Studies
Luce and
Schweitzer (1978) Rice et al.
1986 (current
study)
OTA (1985)
AMOUNT KITRtHUTED TO SMOKING (in billions of 1984 dollars)
TOTAI. $52.8 $53.7 $62.2
rype of CoJI
Direct costs 21.0 23.3 19
8
Indirect costs 31.8 30.4 .
42
4
Diuate
Neoplasms
8.8
N.A.* .
24.7
Circulatory diseases 26.1 N.A. 24
3
Respiratory diseases 17.9 N.A. .
13
1
PF.RCENTAUR ATTRInUTEt) TO SMOKING .
TOTAL 22.6% 23.0% 26.6%
Type nf cau
Direct costs
21.2
23.5
19.7
Indirect costs 23.9 22.8 8
31
DiteaJe
Neoplasms
13.1
N.A.' .
36.7
Circulatory diseases 22.3 N.A. 20.8
Respiratory diseases 37.4 N.A. 27.2
PERCENTAGE OF UIiATHS
TOTAL
25
17
21
Diuase
Neoplasms
20
25
32
Circulatory diseases 25 14 13
Respiratory disea.ces 40 18 41
Nale: To obtain 1984 values, direct costs estimated by each study are adjusted by
thca
He plrhercCentaxe chanRe in total personal health care expenditures reponed by the
are FictancinR Administration. Indirect costs are adjusted by the percentage
change in average weekly earnings reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
* Data from rhe Smoking Supplement of the 1979 National Ilealth Interview Survey
were used to estimare attributable risks for medical care and morbidity losses due
to smoking. Irmitarinns in sample size prohibit disaggregation of health care expenditures
and morbidir c~stc by medical condition.
" OT y
A relxuts 48 percent of deaths from respiratory diseases were due to smoking,
but their taral for the denominator of the proportion excludes deaths from acute
respiratory infections besides acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis, other diseases of
t'Plxr respiratory tract, pneumonconioses, and other lung diseases due to external
agents, and certain other diseases of the respiratory system.
I

530 D. N. Rice et al. IE 7'ht l:conomic Cn.it.r of the Health Fffects of Smoking, 1984
S j-t
associated with smoking rather than using one factor for each major
diagnostic group of diseases. Thus, the total number of deaths attributed
to smoking in our study is lower than the estimates of other researchers.
Conclusions
According to our estimates, smoking has severe economic consequences
for the nation, amounting to a staggering $53.7 billion in 1984. We
believe that our contribution to the literature on the economic costs
of the health effects of smoking using the prevalence-based approach
is four-fold:
(1) The many conceptual issues involved in estimating the health
effects of smoking were discussed and we categorized the al-
ternative perspectives and methods of estimation, and compared
the different cost estimates;
(2) For the first time, attributable risks based on health status and
medical care differentials by age, sex, and diagnosis observed
in the NHIS were developed to estimate the direct and morbidity
costs;
(3) Attributable risks were developed by specific cause of death and
by sex based on weighted mortality ratios for current and former
smokers and nonsmokers from four major prospective studies;
(4) Mortality costs were based on current (1980) lifetime earnings
values applied to deaths by age and sex.
Projections of future costs of smoking assume maintenance of current
smoking behavior, including the prevalence and incidence of smoking,
the amount smoked, and the type of cigarettes. Sensitivity analyses
on these parameters could indicate potential changes in costs that
might occur with changes in smoking habits. Beyond smoking itself,
there are a number of factors influencing the health effects of smoking
and attendant economic costs which are very difficult to predict and
which have the potential to either increase or decrease costs. Progress
in eliminating competing disease and increasing life expectancy would
increase the relative risk of smoking-related morbidity and mortality.
Changes in personal health practices, such as diet and exercise and
exposure to chemicals in air, water, and food, may alter risks associated
with smoking tcr the extent that there are synergistic relations among
risks for diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease, and pulmonary
disease.
Medical treatment has changed significantly over the years and
changes will continue into the future. The cost of treating an illness
may increase or decrease as the method of treatment changes. In a
series of studies, Anne Scitovsky (Scitovsky 1968; Scitovsky and McCall
1977; Scitovsky 1985) examined changes in the costs of treatment of
selected illnesses. In the years between 1951 and 1964 reduction in
average length of stay was the main cost-saving change observed.
Savings due to shorter lengths of stay were outweighed, however, by
increases in the number of diagnostic tests and therapeutic procedures
per case, greater use of specialists, and substitution of in-patient for
out-patient care. During the period 1964 to 1971, average length of
stay continued to decline and the number of diagnostic tests increased,
raising the costs for some conditions and lowering costs of others.
Between 1971 and 1981, the rate of increase in the use of ancillary
services seems to have slowed, but costs were raised substantially by
the introduction of several expensive "big-ticket" technologies. Although
methods of treatment are certain to change, how these changes, coupled
with changes in financing mechanisms that also affect medical care
utilization and costs, will affect expenditures is uncertain. Advances
in medical therapy may improve survival rates or lessen the severity
of the condition and affect medical care expenditures and indirect
costs.
The future economic costs of the health effects of smoking depend
on many diverse factors including smoking behavior, the incidence
or prevalence of smoking-induced diseases, methods and costs of treat-
ment, and valuation of losses in productivity. Nevertheless, the mag-
nitude of the current costs of the health effects of smoking to the
economy justifies concern over the mi.callockion of the nation's resources
to harmful uses.
Methodology Appendix
Direct Costs
Direct costs, or personal health care expenditures, in the United States
in 1980 have been estimated for major diseases, including neoplasms

532 U. P. Rice et a!.
and diseases of the circulatory and respiratory systems, for males and
females and the two age groups under 65 years of age and 65 years
of age and over (Hodgson and Kopstein 1984; Rice, Hodgson, and
Kopstein 1985). Applying attributable risks as explained below to
personal health care expenditures gives the estimated direct costs of
neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseases due to cigarette
smoking.
The Smoking Supplement to the 1979 National Health Interview
Survey (NHIS) provides estimates of utilization of hospital care and
physician services for smokers (current and former) and persons who
never smoked, by sex, age, and medical condition. Owing to limitations
in sample size, our analysis combines the three major diagnostic
categories most clearly associated with smoking-neoplasms, diseases
of the circulatory system, and diseases of the respiratory system.
Five steps were required to estimate direct costs of smoking:
(1) Per capita rates of utilization of days of hospital care and physician
visits for neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseases
combined were calculated for smokers and nonsmokers by sex
and age (appendix table 1). Differences in these rates between
smokers and nonsmokers were tested for statistical significance
by the standard normal test.
(2) The attributable risk associated with smoking, that is, the
maximum proportion of hospital days and physician visits that
could be attributed to smoking, were calculated for males and
females 17 to 44 years of age, 45 to 64 years, and 65 years
and over. The basic formula used is that in Lilienfeld and
Lilienfeld (1980):
attributable risk = p (r - t)
p (r - 1) + 1
rate in exposed
r = relative risk =
rate in nonexposed
p= proportion of the population that ever smoked
(current plus former smokers)
(3) The number of hospital days and physician visits for neoplasms
and circulatory and respiratory diseases combined that were due
to smoking were calculated for males and females in the three
age groups by applying the attributable risks in (2) to the total
t~
0
A
~
4
V
0
~
A
~
~
>
>` o
4" u
T
v
"o
~
~
~
I
>
M M
V~ M N
00 r\ y
N M
\.nv,W oornW rnooaN
M aJ xr M op r- pN \p r,
~ONM 0~00~ O
`1W M fV (V 'IT N
O'v1 W N o O o"D w
v~ M W 1~ 0~ 1~ ~O N O
00 O\O N \O C' Q~O f~
V" M
no`~ o~ o~b~~
w <rr- N
'
V
\ O N
N ~ N
~
~,^~~ oo~rb< v
~rnwo rnN'a
~ . . 0~ M 00 u.
No6 O
rn r, - E
a 4 ~ U
~000FE ~ Q
"T n hrnrnrnao~ ~ °;~
v rn rn rn a
^r0\ wrV 00 aoO~t-~ -~Mr. C
w $ u
`° wo o Y
h v
p ~ o .. fV y~ u o 0
~~ O~oM a ~ i N Q~C~T vr~ E
a o vM. ~ V oM. ~ .N-.
ftlpl~~~,GGjl!! ~ w~ M N C G
~ O ~
w`V'~O ~ 0 ~ .n^
xr ~O ~0~0 ~ N~DO
\6 q6 .-~L. \Q 1~ a 1..
~ 000 N M 00 o ~ 4.
p N N 0 C u
0. a N ~
w o. a' b~ 0 oo ~o $E p oo ?~ O~ ~. 'UJ 1>1
O'V' ~D k 1~ 00 ~D 1~ M ~D NV"
~ 4 C
o00 -:~ , NL
0r Mr-
N Y~ M M
$ z~ ~... ~~ ~
h o
a
a ~ z a ~ ~'wo
V
~ ~~ A~ ~ p Qq N N ~
aC i ] a$ u G n >
a $Z
Pia !i0. ~ ~~~o
q C~ w
u
~, o_0 p 0-0 A p~~' ~ u ov
a ~ E ~ ~ E~ ~ :
oue p y;: W-K ~*Q a-X u'9 ;V ~e a- i cn hp ~ a4
o i: c1.
BvBiZC zv~i2~ xv~iZ< M vBiZC . : ~
533

534 I).l'. Kite et a!. ~ The lsconorrur Caui of the llevllh lifJrru if Smokiag, 1984 535
days and visits (smokers plus nonsmokers) in each of the sex
and age groups.
(4) The attributable risks in appendix table 1 for those 17 to 64
years of age were derived separately for each sex by adding
together the number of hospital days or physician visits due to
smoking at ages 17 to 44 years and 45 to 64 years from (3)
and dividing by the total days or visits for neoplasms and
respiratory and circulatory disease among smokers and nonsmokers
17 to 64 years of age. The following weighted average illustrates
the method employed:
AR _ ARi N; + ARI N~
'+' N; + NI
i= 17 to 44 years of age
j= 45 to 64 years of age
AR = attributable risk (calculated in step (2) for i and j)
N = number of hospital days or physician visits incurred
by smokers and nonsmokers for neoplasms and
circulatory and respiratory diseases.
Attributable risks for all ages 17 years and over were calculated
in a similar manner. Attributable risks for both sexes at a given
age were obtained by summing the number of days or visits
attributed to smoking for each sex and dividing by the total.
(5) The direct costs attributed to smoking shown in tables 2 and 3
were derived by applying the attributed risks in appendix table
I to total personal health care expenditures by type of care,
age, and sex for neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseases.
Costs of hospital care, nursing home care, and professional
services (not including those of physicians) were calculated from
the attributable risks for hospital care. The rationale for applying
risk of hospital care to other professional services is that these
services consist of home health services and private duty nursing
care. Forty percent of home health services in 1980 was paid
for by the hospital insurance component of Medicare and was
for further treatment of a condition treated in a hospital or
skilled nursing facility just prior to receiving home health
services. Most private-duty nursing services were provided in
the hospital. Costs of physician visits and drugs were calculated
from the attributable risks for physician visits.
Morbidity Costs
Morbidity costs consist of the productivity losses to society, as measured
by wages, salaries, and supplements, resulting from days lost from
work among the currently employed, persons unable to work because
of illness and disability, persons institutionalized for health reasons,
and the imputed value of housekeeping services of women who are
unable to keep house because of illness and disability.
Using a methodology parallel to that for direct costs, attributable
risks for indirect morbidity losses due to smoking were derived from
the NHIS for work-loss days among currently employed persons, bed-
disability days among females whose usual activity is keeping house,
and persons unable to work or keep house (appendix table 1). These
attributable risks were applied to the components of total morbidity
losses for neoplasms and circulatory and respiratory diseases estimated
by Rice, Hodgson, and Kopstein (1985) to obtain person-years lost
and morbidity costs of smoking.
Mortality Costs
Mortality costs are the present discounted values of wages, salaries
and supplements, and the imputed values of housekeeping services
lost following the premature death of persons who would otherwise
be productively employed or keeping house. As for direct costs and
morbidity costs, the methodology consists of estimating attributable
risks for deaths due to smoking and applying these to total mortality
costs of specific diseases estimated by Rice, Hodgson, and Kopstein
(1985). Mortality costs, however, are estimated for 19 specific causes
of death attributed to smoking and are not limited to the sum of the
losses from neoplasms and respiratory and circulatory diseases.
Deaths in 1980 from these causes by sex and age were provided
by the 1)ivision of Vital Statistics of the National Center for Health
Statistics fi-om unpublished tabulations. Total person-years lost were
estimated by applying the remaining years of life at each 5-year age
group from the 1980 life tables (National Center.for Health Statistics
1984) to the number of deaths. Total mortality costs for the 19 causes
of death discounted at 4 and 6 percent were calculated by multiplying
the present value of future earnings lost from Rice, Hodgson, and
Kopstein (1985) by the total number of deaths by age and sex. Attrib-
utable risks of smoking taking into account two levels of exposure-

APPENDIX TABLE 2
Mortality Ratios from Prospective Studies Used to Calculate Attributable Risk of Smoking, by Sex,
Smoking Status and Cause of Death
ACS--25 state U.S. veterans British physiaans Swedish
Maks Females ?+6iles Males Females Males Females
Canse of Current
death smokers Former
smokers Current
smokers Former
smokers Current
smokers Former
smoken Curren
smoker t Former
s smokers Current
smokers Former
smokers Current Former Current Former
smokers smokers smokers smoken
1[ALGNANT NEOPLASMS
Trachl.7, bron-
chus, lung 8.53 4.35 3.58 1.23 12.14 5.00 14.00 4.30 6.71 3.29 7.0 4.5 6.1 1.5
Lrytu 6.52 8.41 3.25 1.74 9.95 10.53 13.00 4.00 2.09 1.50
Lip, oral cavity,
phuynx 6.52
2.25
3.25
1.74
8.25
2.05
13.00
4.00
2.09
1.50
-
-
-
Bsophagus 3.96 1.66 4.89 1.87 6.17 1.57 4.67 1.67 -
Bladder 2.55 1.59 2.00 1.94 2.15 1.55 2.11 1.22 - 1.8 1.6 2.3
Kidney 1.57 1.55 - 1.02 1.45 1.74 2.67 3.00 -
Pancreas 2.14 1.37 1.42 1.15 1.84 1.17 1.57 - 1.30 1.22 3.1 2.5 4.8 5.5
Scomach - 1.26 - - 1.60 - - - - - - 2.3 -
Cer.icnl - - - - - - 3.0 1.4
DISEASES OF THE CARDFOVASCUIAR SYSTEM
bchemic heart
disease
Under 65
Mrs
2.03
1.39
1.77
1.16
1.76
1.29
1.7
1.3
1.5
1.5
65 years and
over
1.36
1.17
1.28
1.27
1.61
1.30
Crrebrovascular
disease 1.32 -
1.65
1.28
1.52
1.15
-
-
-
-
1.0
1.1
-
- 1.6
Hypertension 1.41 - - - 1.41 1.44 1.35 1.11 1.62 - 1.3 1.4 1.1 1.4
Aortic aneurysm 3.08 - 3.77 - 5.24 3.04 6.60 3.20 1.11 3.00 1.6 - 1.8 -
Atheeosclerosis - - - - 1.86 1.15 1.38 - 1.44 1.29 2.0 2.0 1.0 2.8
DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
..+..3^ySeml.
LhrOnlc
}xoochitis 7.52 -
.40
-
0.08
0.23
4.67 .
4.67
8.87
.00
Inflveary,
pcxumonia 1.83 -
1.28
-
1.87
OTHER CAUSES OF DEATH
Ae.spiruory
tuberculosis - -
-
2.12
1.26
5.00
3.67
-
-
-
-
-
Ulcer 2.50 - - 3.50 2.50 2.50 1.50 - - 3.8 3.3 2.7
Sore+rer: American Cancer Society and U.S. veterans data from Hammond (1966); British physiciaris
data from Doll and Peto (1976) and Doll et al.
(1980); Swedish data from Cederlof, Friberg, and Lundman (1977).
- Data noc available
TIMN 305904

538
D.P. Rice et ul.
~rOOC~r~
M 00 N
I~ V1 M
O
h 3 ~
SrnC, 1--1
. ~ N N M
r~.
a
~
T N
V~ 1~ N
+ N
O
w
~
w ~
Q ~ S
w >
w ~
.~
~ ~ ~ ~
. ~ a
t3
~
> O 00 V, '-O ^' N
rn^o o°r`'~
N
c ~ ~
~ ~~00
00
4
~
< c
xa
Q >'
w ~
a o
< `.~.
a
~
V
u
~
~9 >v
00
C
~
E ~ s-a4
v~zzF~'~~
~T
v
E
.w
W
u C
79
4
W
~
50
00
~ 0
o 13
~
.~ ~
I x [
~ ~ qC QC Cq iq
S4 S~ u u u o
Zia
~
1'!x Erononu Coit.i oJ the 1leulth 1:/Jecu of SncokinX, 1984
539
current and former smokers-were applied to the total costs to obtain
mortality costs of smoking.
The attributable risk formula for two levels of exposure can be
expressed as (Walter 1976):
Po =
p, _
MR, _
AR=po+P, (MRi)+Pz(MRZ)- 1
po + p, (MR,) + P2 (MR2)
proportion of those who never smoked in the population
proportion of current smokers in the population
mortality ratio for current smokers compared with those
who never smoked
proportion of former smokers in the population
mortality ratio for former smokers compared with those
who never smoked
For males and females, overall mortality ratios for both current and
former smokers were determined for 19 diseases considered to be
causally related to cigarette smoking by combining age-adjusted mortality
ratios from four prospective studies on smoking: American Cancer
Society 25-State Study, United States Veterans Study, British Physicians
Study, and the Swedish Study (appendix table 2). Although there are
other major prospective studies on smoking, these four are the only
studies for which person-years of exposure data are available to estimate
age-adjusted mortality ratios. Person-years are the number of persons
in the study group multiplied by the number of years each person
was followed until death or the study ended.
Overall mortality ratios for each disease were obtained by treating
each study as a separate stratum and weighting the mortality ratios
by the number of deaths from each cause and the person-years exposed
and unexposed in the four studies (Rothman and Boice 1979):
L, ai_N../Ti
Mortality Ratio = ' q'
~ b, N,,/T;
a; = age-adjusted number of deaths in the exposed group in
srudy i
NQ; = person-years in the unexposed group in study i
b, = age-adjusted number of deaths in the unexposed group in
study i

~.n
APPENDIX TABLE 4 -41
Weighted Average Mortality Ratios and Attributable Risk of Smoking, by Sex, Smoking Status, and
Cause of Death 0
Mortality ratio Attributable risk
(percenrage)
Males Females
Males
Females
C rmer
F
ICD Number Cause of death Current
smokers Former
smokers urrent
smokers o
smokers All smokers All smokers
MALIGNA,"iT NEOPLASMS
81
8%
7%
45
162 bronchus, lung
Trachea 10.02 4.47 3.67 1.29 . .
161 ,
Larynx 7.33 8.84 3.25 1.74 82.7 44.0
140-149 Lip, oral cavity, pharynx 6.62 2.28 3.25 1.74 71.6 44.0
150 Esophagus 4.80 1.65 4.90 1.87 62.1 56.4
188 Bladder 2.30 1.60 1.89 1.94 40.3 29.2
189 Kidney 1.47 1.63 1.50 1.02 27.0 13.2
157 Pancreas 2.00 1.37 1.48 1.26 33.0 15.5
151 Stomach 1.49 1.17 2.30 - 17.7 27.9
180 Cervix NA NA 3.00 1.40 NA 39.6
DISEASES OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
410-414 Ischemic heart disease
Under 65 years
65 years and over 1.88
1.49 1.38
1.20 1.67
1.28 1.17
1.27 31.7
15.4 19.3
O
7.9
~
4
4 lar disease
sc
b
C 1.32 1.00 1.45 1.28 10.8 15.1
38
30-
401-404 u
rova
ere
Hypertension 1.39 1.21 1.43 1.40 17.5 16.0 ;Q
441
Aortic aneurysm 4.46 2.95 3.19 3.01 65.6 49.2
2L
440 Atherosclerosis 1.83 1.14 1.94 2.40 26.3 33.3 a
427.5 Cardiac arrest 3.00 - 3.00 - 43.1 37.3 ~
DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
491-492 Emphysema, chronic bronchitis 10.13 10.97 7.40 4.89 86.7 71
6 ~
480-487 Influenza, pneumonia 1.79 1
29 1
17 23
0 .
1 ~
OTHER CIUSES OF DEATH . . . 0.2 0
010-112
Respirato
tubercul
i ~
n
ry
os
s 2.56 1.95 46
8 ;
531-534 Ulcer 2.88 2.12 3.21 2.45 .
51.3 47
0
. c'.
M
li ~
orta
ry ratios from U.S. Pabiic Health Service i983, 104; data for all other causes of death are
calcslated irom Table 7.
- Data not ;vailable
~
NA Nor applicable a
TIMN 305906

542
D. P. Kia et al. -
Nj; = person-years in the exposed group in study i
T; = total person-years in study i(T; = No; + N,;)
To illustrate this methodology, the overall mortality ratio of 10.02
(MR) for lung cancer for male current smokers was computed by
applying the above formula to the data shown in appendix table 3.
A similar procedure was followed to estimate the weighted mortality
ratio of 4.47 (MR2) in male former smokers. Combining these overall
mortality ratios for current and former smokers with the proportions
of male smokers in: 1980 results in an attributable risk due to smoking
of 81.8 percent for lung cancer mortality in men (appendix table 4).
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the only disease for which age-
specific mortality ratios were used to calculate separate attributable
risks for smoking under age 65 and 65 years and over. Because
mortality ratios for smoking for IHD decline with age (U.S. Public
Health Service 1983) and deaths due to IHD rise rapidly with age,
applying an overall attributable risk to all IHD deaths could have
substantially overestimated the mortality losses for the elderly while
underestimating the losses for those under age 65.
To estimate mortality costs due to cigarette smoking by cause of
death, the attributable risks in appendix table 4 were applied to the
total number of deaths from the 19 specific causes of death attributable
to smoking, to person-years lost, and to mortality costs discounted
at 4 percent and 6 percent for males and females aged 20 and over
in 5-year age groups.
References
Acton, J.D. 1975. Measuring the Social Impact of Health and Circulatory
Disease Programa: Prelimntary Framework and listimater. Rand Report
R-1967. Santa Monica: Rand Corporation.
Atkinson, A.B., and J.L. Townsend. 1977. Economic Aspects of
Reduced Smoking. Lancet 8036:492-95.
Blanchard, C.G., E.B. Blanchard, and J.V. Becker, 1976. The Young
Widow: Depressed Symptomatology throughout the Grief Process.
Psychiatry 39:394-99.
Bloom, B.S., R.S. Knorr, and A.E. Evans. 1985. The Epidemiology
of Disease Expenses: The Costs of Caring for Children With
Cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association 253:2393-97.
Boden, L.1. 1976. The Economic Impact of Environmental Disease
'1 he l.uonomic (;arti o% the Health 1 ffeeYS of Smoking, 1984
543
on Health Care Delivery. Journal of Occupational Medicine 18:467-
72.
Campbell, J.D., and A.R. Campbell. 1978. The Social and Economic
Costs of fnd-staKe Renal Disease. New F.ngland fournal of Medicrne
299:386-92.
Cassileth, B.R., E.J. Lusk, T.B. Straus, D.S. Miller, L.L. Brown,
T.A. Cross, and A.N. Tenaglia. 1984. Psychosocial Status in
Chronic Illness. New England Journal of Medicine 3 l 1:506-11.
Cederlof, R., L. Friberg, and T. Lundman. 1977. The Interactions
of Smoking, I;nvironment, and Heredity and Their Implications
for Disease Etiology: A Report of Epidemiological Studies on the
Swedish Twin Registries. Acta Medica Scandinavica 612 (suppl.):7-
128.
Cooper, B.S., and D.P. Rice. 1976. The Economic Cost of Illness
Revisited. Social Security Bulletin 39:21-36.
Derogaris, L.R., G.R. Morrow, J. Fetting, D. Penman, S. Piasetsky,
A.M. Schrnale, M. Henricho, and C.L.M. Carnicke. 1983. The
Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders among Cancer Patients. Journal
of the American Medical Association 249:751-57.
Doll, R., R. Gray, B. Hafner, and R. Peto. 1980. Mortality in
Relation to Smoking: 22 Years' Observations on Female British
Doctors. British Medical Journal 280:967-71.
Doll, R., and R. Peto. 1976. Mortality in Relation to Smoking: 20
Years' Observations on Male British Doctors. British Medical Journal
2:1525-36.
Forbes, S.F., and M.E. Thompson, 1983. Estimating the Health Care
Costs of Smokers. Canadian Journal of Pub/ic Health 74:183-90.
Freeman, R.A., C.R. Rowland, M.C. Smith, S. Cabell Shull, and
D.D. Garner. 1976. Economic Cost of Pulmonary Emphysema:
Implications for Policy on Smoking and Health. Inquiry 13:15-
22.
Garland, C., E. Barrett-Conner, L. Suarez, M.H. Criqui, and D.L.
Wingard. 1985. Effects of Passive Smoking on Ischemic Heart
Disease Mortality of Nonsmokers. AmericanJournal of Epidemiology
1121:645-50.
Goldberg, R.J. 199 1. Management of Depression in the Patient with
Advanced Cancer. Journal of the American Medical AJsacciation 246:373-
76.
Gori, G.B., and B.J. Richter. 1978. Macroeconomics of Disease
Prevention:n the United States. Science 200:1124-30.
Hammond, E.C. 1966. Smoking in Relation to the Death Rates of
One Million Men and Women. In Epidemiological Approachu to the
Study of Cancer and Other Chronic Disraser, ed. William Haenszel,
127-204. National Cancer Institute Monograph no. 19. Wash-
I

544
D. P. Rice el al.
ington: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,
Public Health Service.
Harvard University Institute for the Study of Smoking Behavior and
Policy. 1985. The Cigarette Excise Tax. Smoking Behavior and
Policy Conference Series. Cambridge.
Hedrick, J.L. 197 l. The Economic Costs of Cigarette Smoking. HSMHA
Health Reports 86:179-82.
Hodgson, T.A., and A.N. Kopstein. 1984. Health Care Expenditures
for Major Diseases in 1980. Health Care Financing Review 5:1-
12.
Houts, P.S., A. Lipton, H.A. Harvey, B. Martin, M.A. Simmonds,
R.H. Dixon, S. Longo, T. Andrews, R.A. Gordon, J. Meloy,
arid S.L. Hoffman. 1984. Nonmedical Costs to Patients and Their
Families Associated with Outpatient Chemotherapy. Cancer
53:2388-92.
Institute of Medicine. 1981. Costs of Environment-related Heallh Effects.
Washington: National Academy Press.
Kristein, M. M. 1977. Economic Issues in Prevention. Prraentive Medicine
6:252-64.
Lansky, S.B., N.U. Cairns, J.M. Clark, J. Lowman, L. Miller, and
R. Trueworthy. 1979. Childhood Cancer Nonmedical Costs of
the Illness. Cancer 43:403-8.
Leu, R.E., and T. Schaub. 1983. Does Smoking Increase Medical
Care Expenditure? Social Science Medicine 17:1907-14.
Lewit, E.M. 1983. Some Economic Issues Raised by Reduced Smoking.
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Allied Social Sciences,
San Francisco, December 28-30.
Lilienfeld, A.M., and D.E. Lilienfeld. 1980. Foundations of Epidemiology.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Lubitz, J., and R. Prihoda. 1984. The Use and Costs of Medicare
Services in the Last Two Years of Life. Health Care Financing
Review 5:117-31.
Luce, B.R., and S.O. Schweitzer. 1978. Smoking and Alcohol Abuse:
A Comparison of Their Economic Consequences. New England
Journal of Medicine 298:569-7 1.
Marinelli, R.P., and A.E. Dell Orto. 1977. Tbe Psychological and
Social Impact of Physical Disability. New York: Springer.
Mishan, E.J. 1971. Evaluation of Life and Limb. Journal of Political
Economy 79:687-705.
Mushkin, S.J., and J.S. Landefeld. 1978. Nonhealth Sector Costs of
Illness. Report A7. Washington: Public Services Laboratory,
Georgetown University.
National Center for Health Statistics. 1984. Vital Statistics of the United
T he I:conomic Co.rtr of the l iealth 1 J%cts of Smoking, 1984
545
State.r, 1980, vol. 2, sec. 6, life tables. DHHS pub, no. (PHS)
84-11O4. Washington.
. 1985. Health, United States, 1985. DHHS pub. no. (PHS)
86-1232.
1986. Trends in Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, and Other
Health Practices among U.S. Adults, 1977 and 1983. Advance
Data from Vital and Health Statistics, no. 118, June 30. DHHS
pub. no. (P11S) 86-1250. Hyattsville, Md.: U.S. Public Health
Service.
National Reseaah Council. 1986. !s'nvironmental Tobacco Smoke: MeasurrnR
lixpruurr and Aisessing Health Effects. Washington: National Academy
Press.
Office of Technology Assessment. 1985. Smoking-related Deaths and
Financial Costs. OTA Staff Memorandum. Health Program, U.S.
Congress.
Oster, G., G.A. Colditz, and N.L. Kelly. 1984a. The Economic
Costs of Smoking and Benefits of Quitting for Individual Smokers.
Preventive Medicine 13:377-89.
. 1984b. The Economic Costs of Smoking and Benefits of Quitting.
Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.
Ravenholt, R.T. 1985. Tobacco's Impact on Twentieth-century U.S.
Mortality Patterns. American fournal of Preventive Medicine 1:4-17.
Repace, J.L., and A.H. Lowrey. 1985. A Quantitative Estimate of
Non.smokers' Lung Cancer Risk from Passive Smoking. Envimnmcnt
1 nternat ional 1 1: 3-2 2.
Rice, D. P. and T. A. Hodgson. 1981. Social and Economic Implications
of Cancer in the United States. National Center for Health Statistics,
Vital and Health Statistics, series 3, no. 20. DHHS pub. no. (PHS)
81-1404. Waxhington.
Rice, D. P. , T. A. L-Iodgson, and A. N. Kopstein. 1985. The Economic
Costs of Illness: A Replication and Update. Health Care Financing
Review 7:61-80.
Robinson, J.C. 1986. Philosophical Origins of the Economic Valuation
of Life. Milhank Quarterly 64(1):133-55.
Rothman, K.J., and J.D. Boice. 1979. Epidemiologic Analysis with a
Programmable (;alculator. NIH pub. no. 79-1649. Washington.
Russell, L. B. 1986. I.r Prevention Better Than Cure? Washington:
Brookings Institution.
Schelling, T.C: February 15, 1984. Personal Communication.
Schelling, T.C. 1968. The Life You Save May Be Your Own. In
Problems in Public Expenditure Analysis, ed. S.B. Chase, 127-76.
Washington: Brookings Institution.
Scitovsky, A.A. 1968. Changes in the Costs of Treatment of Selected
Illnesses, 195 1-65.'American Economic Review 57:1182-95.
I

546
D. P. Rice et al.
. 1985. Changes in the Costs of Treatment of Selected Illnesses,
1971-1981. Medical Care 23:1345-57.
Scitovsky, A. A. , and N. McCall. 1977. Changer in the Cotts of Treatment
of Selected Illnesses 1951-1964-1971. DHEW pub. no. (HRA)
77-3161. Washington.
Shultz, J. M. 1985. Perspectives on the Economic Magnitude of Cigarette
Smoking. New York State Journal of Medicine 85:302-6.
Simon, J. 1968. The Health Economics of Cigarette Consumption.
Journal of Human Resources 3:111-17.
U.S. Public Health Service. 1964. Smoking and Health: Report of the
Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service.
PHS pub. no. 1103. Washington: U.S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Center for Disease
Control.
. 1982, The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cancer: A Report of
the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office on Smoking and Health.
DHHS pub. no. (PHS) 82-50179. Washington.
. 1983. The Health Conrequencer of Smoking: Cardiovascular Disease.
A Report of the Surgeon General, Office on Smoking and Health, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Servicu. DHHS pub. no. (PHS)
84-50204. Washington.
. 1984. The Health Consequences of Smoking: Chronic Obstructive
Lung Disease. A Report of the Surgeon General, Office on Smoking and
Health, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. DHHS pub.
no. (PHS) 84-50205. Washington.
. 1985. The Health Conrequencu of Smoking: Cancer and Chronic
Lung Di.rease in the Workplace. A Report of the Surgeon General, Office
on Smoking and Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. DHHS pub. no. 85-50207. Washington.
Upp, M. 1983. Relative Importance of Various Income Sources of
the Aged, 1980. Social Security Bulletin 46:3-10.
Vogt, T.M. 1983. Medical Care and the Costs of Smoking. Public
Health Reviews l 1:121-33
Vogt, T.M., and S.O. Schweitzer. 1985. Medical Costs of Cigarette
Smoking in a Health Maintenance Organization. American Journal
of Epidemiology 122:1060-66.
Walter, S.D. 1976. The Estimation and Interpretation of Attributable
Risk in Health Research. Biometrics 32:829-49.
Warner, K. E. 1983. The Benefit.r and Coltr of Anti.rmoking Policie3: Final
Report. Grant no. HS03634. Washington: National Center for
Health Services Research.
. 1985. Cigarette Advertising and Media Coverage of Smoking
and Health. Neu, England Journal of Medicine 312:384-88.
The Economic Co.itt of tfie Health I ffect.c of Smoking, 1984
547
. 1986. Smoking and Health lmplications of a Change in the
Federal Cigarette Excise Tax. Journal of the American Medical As-
sociation 255:1028-32.
Warner, K. E. , and B. R. Luce. 1982. Cost-benefit and Cost-effective
Analysis in Health Care. Ann Arbor: Health Administration Press.
Williams, J.R., and C.G. Justus. 1974. Evaluation of Nationwide
Health Costs of Air Pollution and Cigarette' Smoking. Journal of
the Air Pollution Control Association 24:1063-66.
Acknowledgments: The research on which this paper is based was supported in
part by the Commonwealth Fund (grant no. 6516). The views expressed in
this paper are those of the authors and no official endorsement by the
Commonwealth Fund, the Universiry of California, the National Center for
Health Statistics, or San Diego State University is intended or should be
inferred. The authorc appreciate the helpful comments from two anonymous
reviewers of an earlier version of the paper.
Addrut correspondence to: Dorothy P. Rice, B.A., Sc.D., Department of Social
and Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, N631Y, University of California,
San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143.
