The economic impact of smoking in Germany

Smoking is a high-risk behaviour affecting health and economic welfare of society. Thus it is important to quantify the economic burden smoking places on social institutions in Germany. Approximately 33.4% of the male and 20.4% of the female population are current smokers. This study investigates the health care costs of smoking based on 1996 figures, focusing on the seven most frequent diseases associated with the inhalation of tobacco smoke: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, international classification of diseases (ICD) 490-491); lung cancer (ICD 162); stroke (ICD 434-438); coronary artery disease (ICD 410-414); cancer of the mouth and larynx (ICD 140-149, 161) and artherosclerotic occlusive disease (ICD 440). A data search was carried out on MEDLINE, the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information, and the Internet as well as in databases of health insurance companies and the German Federal institute of statistics. Direct and indirect costs were calculated separately. The results estimate the total smoking related health care costs (attributable fraction due to smoking) for COPD to be 5.471 billion EURO (73%), for lung cancer 2.593 billion EURO (89%), for cancer of the mouth and larynx 0.996 billion EURO (65%), for stroke 1.774 billion EURO (28%), for coronary artery disease 4.963 billion EURO (35%) and for atherosclerotic occlusive disease 0.761 billion EURO (28%). The economic burden of smoking related health care costs for Germany is 16.6 billion EURO. Smoking is therefore responsible for 47% of the overall costs of these diseases (35.2 billion EURO). In the view of the high costs for smoking, of which almost 50% are due to respiratory disease, pneumologists should enhance their effort in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.