Smoking status and subjective well-being.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Economics
• Psychology

Background:

• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires cost-benefit analyses for new regulations, including potential subjective well-being (SWB) losses for ex-smokers.
• This regulatory practice assumes ex-smokers experience diminished SWB, potentially limiting tobacco control policies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically investigate the relationship between smoking status and SWB.
• To determine if ex-smokers experience a net loss in SWB compared to their smoking state.
• To assess the impact of tobacco control policies on SWB changes after quitting.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal internet survey of over 5000 Dutch adults across 5 years.
• Controlled for socioeconomic, demographic, health, and personality characteristics (substance use, stress sensitivity).
• Utilized panel fixed effects models to account for unobservable time-invariant characteristics.

Main Results:

• No evidence suggests ex-smokers incur a net loss in SWB.
• No difference in SWB change was observed between those quitting under stricter versus relaxed tobacco control policies.
• Cross-sectional data indicate a statistically significant and meaningful increase in SWB upon quitting smoking.

Conclusions:

• Empirical evidence does not support the assumption that ex-smokers have lower net SWB.
• Quitting smoking is associated with significant SWB gains.
• Findings challenge the inclusion of SWB loss in regulatory cost-benefit analyses for antitobacco policies.