The Impoverishment Due to Direct Tobacco Expenditure in Malaysia

Tan Wei Leong: The Impoverishment Due to Direct Tobacco Expenditure in Malaysia. 2019, (Type: ORAL PRESENTATION; Organisation: Department of Social Preventive Medicine).

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco-smoking does not only incur adverse health-related financial impacts but also non-health financial and welfare impacts. One of the non-health impacts is impoverishment attributed to direct tobacco expenditure. Hence, this study examined the impoverishment attributed to direct tobacco expenditure in Malaysia from 1993 to 2014. METHODS This study utilised five series of nationally representative data from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) and poverty line index (PLI) officially released by Malaysian Economic Planning Unit to classify the poverty status of households. Individual PLI was used to determine number of household members impoverished due to direct tobacco expenditure. RESULTS Overall, the impoverishment from direct tobacco expenditure is persistently present at five points of time in Malaysia, however, increases in the estimate of impoverishment had reduced from 1.08% in 1993 to 0.01% in 2014. By the number of individuals per se, there were 184,240 persons affected in 1993 which gradually reduced to 3,443 persons in 2014. A declining trend in impoverishment due to direct tobacco expenditure was also observed in all three regions, both urban and rural strata and all ethnicities in Malaysia. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the increases in the estimation of impoverishment due to direct tobacco expenditure have been reducing from 1993 to 2014. If this finding is interpreted along with the persistently high prevalence of tobacco-smoking in Malaysia especially the adult male complemented with the gradual increasing tobacco taxes, we postulated that the tobacco could be still affordable, or the rate of income growth has exceeded the price increase of tobacco products.

    BibTeX (Download)

    @proceedings{APCPH-2019-94,
    title = {The Impoverishment Due to Direct Tobacco Expenditure in Malaysia},
    author = {Tan Wei Leong},
    year  = {2019},
    date = {2019-07-22},
    urldate = {2019-07-22},
    journal = {6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health 2019 Proceedings},
    issue = {6},
    abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Tobacco-smoking does not only incur adverse health-related financial impacts but also non-health financial and welfare impacts. One of the non-health impacts is impoverishment attributed to direct tobacco expenditure. Hence, this study examined the impoverishment attributed to direct tobacco expenditure in Malaysia from 1993 to 2014. METHODS This study utilised five series of nationally representative data from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) and poverty line index (PLI) officially released by Malaysian Economic Planning Unit to classify the poverty status of households. Individual PLI was used to determine number of household members impoverished due to direct tobacco expenditure. RESULTS Overall, the impoverishment from direct tobacco expenditure is persistently present at five points of time in Malaysia, however, increases in the estimate of impoverishment had reduced from 1.08% in 1993 to 0.01% in 2014. By the number of individuals per se, there were 184,240 persons affected in 1993 which gradually reduced to 3,443 persons in 2014. A declining trend in impoverishment due to direct tobacco expenditure was also observed in all three regions, both urban and rural strata and all ethnicities in Malaysia. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the increases in the estimation of impoverishment due to direct tobacco expenditure have been reducing from 1993 to 2014. If this finding is interpreted along with the persistently high prevalence of tobacco-smoking in Malaysia especially the adult male complemented with the gradual increasing tobacco taxes, we postulated that the tobacco could be still affordable, or the rate of income growth has exceeded the price increase of tobacco products.},
    note = {Type: ORAL PRESENTATION; Organisation: Department of Social Preventive Medicine},
    keywords = {Impoverishment, tobacco expenditure, tobacco-smoking},
    pubstate = {published},
    tppubtype = {proceedings}
    }