Economic costs of cigarette smoking among adolescents in Nigeria

Cigarette smoking is an established cause of preventable death and often initiated during adolescence. We estimated the short- and long-term costs of cigarette smoking among currently smoking adolescents in Nigeria.

A cross-sectional survey among adolescents in Oyo state, Nigeria and a review of mortality records of patients managed for lung cancer in a tertiary facility in Ibadan, Nigeria were conducted. Short-term costs estimated were: (a) average weekly costs of purchasing cigarettes by currently smoking adolescents, and (b) costs of managing at least an episode of chronic cough occurring within 12 months of the survey. Long-term costs were limited to: (a) life-time expenditure on purchasing cigarettes, and (b) direct medical and non-medical (transportation) costs of managing lung cancer. Long-term costs were first projected to the approximate year when the adolescents (mean age:16.0 ± 1.8 years) might be diagnosed with lung cancer based on the average age at presentation with symptoms of lung cancer obtained from the records (59.8 years), and then discounted to 2020 prices. This was estimated as 44 years from the base year (2020). Costs were reported in 2020 prices in Nigerian Naira (NGN) and US dollar (USD) equivalent using the Central Bank of Nigeria, June 2020 exchange rate of USD 1: NGN 360.50.

Approximately 3.8% of the adolescents were current cigarette smokers. Average weekly expenditure on cigarettes was NGN 306.82 ± 5.74 (USD 0.85 ± 0.02). About 26% had experienced at least an episode of chronic cough which cost them an average of NGN 1226.81 ± 6.18 (USD 3.40 ± 0.02) to manage. Total future costs of cigarette smoking in 2020 prices for the 43 adolescents who were current smokers in the event that they develop lung cancer were approximately NGN 175.7 million (USD 487.3 thousand), NGN 871.8 million (USD 2.4 million) and NGN 4.6 trillion (USD 12.7 million) at assumed annual inflation rates of 10%, 15%, and 20% respectively and discount rate of 4.25%.

The estimated economic costs of smoking were very high. Efforts to prevent smoking initiation among adolescents in our study area should be intensified. Interventions to subsidize the medical cost of health-related consequences of cigarette smoking are also required, especially as treatment costs are currently largely borne out-of-pocket.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10389-021-01644-5.