Economic Evaluation of the effect of Quitting Smoking on Weight Gains: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Objective This article estimated the causal effect of quitting smoking on body weight gains in the United Kingdom to evaluate whether savings in health costs deriving from smoking prevention and its related diseases are greater than the costs associated with increased obesity. Methods We used a longitudinal data set extracted from two waves (2004-2006) of the British Household Panel Survey, which includes information on smoking and a large number of sociodemographic variables. We modeled the effect of quitting smoking on body weight accounting for heterogeneous responses from individuals belonging to different clinical classes of body mass index (BMI) (i.e., overweight and obese individuals). National Health Service costs associated with smoking were then used to implement a cost-benefit analysis, comparing the advantages of smoking reductions with the costs associated with increased obesity. Results The BMI was found to increase by 0.26 points for quitters compared with those who continued to smoke. The estimated BMI increase was larger for overweight (0.49 points) and obese (0.76 points) people. This result does not change when different control groups are examined. From an economic perspective, the National Health Service cost reductions attributable to quitting smoking were £156.81 million whereas the lost benefit for unintended increases in body weight was £24.07 million. Conclusions This article found that the health benefits associated with quitting smoking are greater than the costs associated with increased overweight and obesity.