Summary: 10.1177/0272989X05276859MEDICAL DECISION MAKING/MAY­JUN 2005AHMADCOST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSISRAISING THE LEGAL SMOKING AGE IN CALIFORNIAMAY­JUN
The Cost-Effectiveness of Raising the
Legal Smoking Age in California
Sajjad Ahmad, PhD
Given evidence that most smokers start smoking before the
age of 18 and that smokers who start earlier in life are less
likely to quit, policies that reduce or delay initiation could
have a large impact on public health. Raising the legal mini-
mum purchase age of cigarettes to 21 may be an effective way
for states to reduce youth smoking by making it harder for
teens to buy cigarettes from stores and by reducing the num-
ber of legal buyers they encounter in their normal social cir-
cles. To inform the ongoing debate over this policy option
in California, this study provides an evaluation of the cost-
effectiveness of raising the state's legal smoking age to 21.
Costs and benefits were estimated from a societal perspective
using a dynamic computer simulation model that simulates
changes to the California population in age, composition,
and smoking behavior over time. Secondary data for model
parameters were obtained from publicly available sources.

Source: Ahmad, Sajjad - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Nevada at Las Vegas

Collections: Engineering