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. 2019 Feb 4;17:26. doi: 10.1186/s12916-019-1261-5

Table 4.

Tobacco reduction costs (2017 Canadian $)

Costs associated with specific tobacco reduction scenarios Component cost Per person cost of intervention Reference
1) Increased taxation $0
2) Pharmacotherapy and counselling
 a. Unit cost of NRT chewing gum $0.25 [83]
 b. Number of doses of NRT chewing gum (N) 1008 [45]
 c. Cost of treatment with NRT chewing gum (a*b) $254.32
 d. Unit cost of a nicotine patch $2.68 [83]
 e. Number of doses of nicotine patch (N) 84 [45]
 f. Cost of treatment with nicotine patch (d*e) $225.00
 g. Cost of one varenicline 0.5 mg pill $1.72 [83]
 h. Number of doses of varenicline (N) 317
 i. Cost of treatment with varenicline (g*h) $544.29
 j. Number of counselling cessions 12 [46]
 k. Duration of each counselling session 42 min [46]
 l. Hourly Nurse wage $81.39 [41]
 m. Cost for complete counselling sessions (j*k*l) $683.68
 n. Total cost of Pharmacotherapy and counselling (c + f + i + m) per person $1707.29
 o. Proportion of smokers who made a quit attempt 14.14%
 Pro-rated mean cost of pharmacotherapy and counselling per smoker (n*o: applied to all smokers in the model cohort) $241.41
3) Pharmacotherapy, counselling and mass media
 a. Total cost of pharmacotherapy and counselling $1707.29
 b. Proportion of smokers who made a quit attempt 19.8%
 c. Recommended per capita expenditure on mass media campaigns $2.05 [47]
 Prorated mean cost of pharmacotherapy and counselling per smoker (a*b + c): added to all smokers $339.78
4) Multifaceted strategy—pharmacotherapy, counselling, mass media, and taxation $339.78

Cost of taxation is incurred by the individual (hence no health system cost)