ArticlePloS one2011
Using search query surveillance to monitor tax avoidance and smoking cessation following the United States' 2009 "SCHIP" cigarette tax increase.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Digital Insights into Workplace Breastfeeding in Indonesia: A Google Trends Analysis of Barriers and Opportunities.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Impact of the Food and Drug Administration enforcement policy on flavored e-cigarettes on the online popularity of disposable e-cigarettes: analyses of Google search query data.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Opportunities and Challenges for Developing Syndromic Surveillance Systems for the Detection of Social Epidemics.Online journal of public health informatics · 2020Article
- Why do people use electronic nicotine delivery systems (electronic cigarettes)? A content analysis of Twitter, 2012-2015.PloS one · 2017Article
- Revisiting the Rise of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Using Search Query Surveillance.American journal of preventive medicine · 2016Article
- The utility of web mining for epidemiological research: studying the association between parity and cancer risk.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2016Article
- Effect of Tobacco Control Policies on Information Seeking for Smoking Cessation in the Netherlands: A Google Trends Study.PloS one · 2016Article
- Forecasting the Incidence of Dementia and Dementia-Related Outpatient Visits With Google Trends: Evidence From Taiwan.Journal of medical Internet research · 2015Article
- Seasonal trends in tinnitus symptomatology: evidence from Internet search engine query data.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2015Article
- Article
- Seasonal effects on the occurrence of nocturnal leg cramps: a prospective cohort study.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2015Article
- Seasonal trends in sleep-disordered breathing: evidence from Internet search engine query data.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2015Article
- Enhancing disease surveillance with novel data streams: challenges and opportunities.EPJ data science · 2015Article
- Article
- Development of measures assessing attitudes toward contraband tobacco among a web-based sample of smokers.Tobacco induced diseases · 2015Article
- Internet search and krokodil in the Russian Federation: an infoveillance study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2014Article
- Digital detection for tobacco control: online reactions to the 2009 U.S. cigarette excise tax increase.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2014Article
- Infodemiology of alcohol use in Hong Kong mentioned on blogs: infoveillance study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2013Article
- Cigarette price-minimization strategies by U.S. smokers.American journal of preventive medicine · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Smokers can use the web to continue or quit their habit. Online vendors sell reduced or tax-free cigarettes lowering smoking costs, while health advocates use the web to promote cessation. We examined how smokers' tax avoidance and smoking cessation Internet search queries were motivated by the United States' (US) 2009 State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) federal cigarette excise tax increase and two other state specific tax increases. Google keyword searches among residents in a taxed geography (US or US state) were compared to an untaxed geography (Canada) for two years around each tax increase. Search data were normalized to a relative search volume (RSV) scale, where the highest search proportion was labeled 100 with lesser proportions scaled by how they relatively compared to the highest proportion. Changes in RSV were estimated by comparing means during and after the tax increase to means before the tax increase, across taxed and untaxed geographies. The SCHIP tax was associated with an 11.8% (95% confidence interval [95%CI], 5.7 to 17.9; p<.001) immediate increase in cessation searches; however, searches quickly abated and approximated differences from pre-tax levels in Canada during the months after the tax. Tax avoidance searches increased 27.9% (95%CI, 15.9 to 39.9; p<.001) and 5.3% (95%CI, 3.6 to 7.1; p<.001) during and in the months after the tax compared to Canada, respectively, suggesting avoidance is the more pronounced and durable response. Trends were similar for state-specific tax increases but suggest strong interactive processes across taxes. When the SCHIP tax followed Florida's tax, versus not, it promoted more cessation and avoidance searches. Efforts to combat tax avoidance and increase cessation may be enhanced by using interventions targeted and tailored to smokers' searches. Search query surveillance is a valuable real-time, free and public method, that may be generalized to other behavioral, biological, informational or psychological outcomes manifested online.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.