ArticleTobacco control2024
Trends in cross-border and illicit tobacco purchases among people who smoke in England, 2019-2022.
Article in Tobacco control, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reducing tobacco supplier profits and pricing power: Modelling the impact of a tobacco price cap and tax increase on socioeconomic inequalities in England.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Article
- Examining the impact of England's menthol cigarette ban on postban smoking cessation: longitudinal findings from the England arm of the 2020-2022 ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys.Tobacco control · 2025Article
- No Change in Illicit Tobacco Use Following the Introduction of Standardised Packaging? A Longitudinal Online Survey in the United Kingdom.Tobacco use insights · 2025Article
- Attitudes and Exposure to Illicit Tobacco in England, 2022.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Article
- Trends in purchasing cross-border, illicit and home-brewed alcohol: A population study in Great Britain, 2020-2023.Drug and alcohol review · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe last 5 years have seen substantial changes in England's social and economic landscape as a result of Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis. We aimed to examine changes in cross-border and illicit tobacco purchasing over this period.
designNationally representative monthly cross-sectional survey.
settingEngland, 2019-2022.
participants11 232 adults (≥18 years) who smoked in the past year.
main outcome measuresWe estimated time trends in the proportion reporting purchasing tobacco from (1) cross-border and (2) illicit sources in the past 6 months.
resultsBetween February 2019 and October 2022, there was a non-linear increase in the proportion of participants reporting cross-border tobacco purchases (from 5.2% to 16.1% overall; prevalence ratio (PR)=3.10, 95% CI 2.03-4.73). Prevalence first increased from 5.2% to 15.4% between February 2019 and April 2020, before falling to 7.8% between April 2020 and September 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then increasing again to 16.1% by the end of the period. Changes in cross-border tobacco purchasing were more pronounced among participants from more advantaged (from 6.6% to 23.3%; PR=3.52, 95% CI 2.05-5.91) compared with less advantaged (4.4% to 11.5%; PR=2.61, 95% CI 1.17-5.20) social grades (p
conclusionsDespite a fall in cross-border tobacco purchasing during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic among adults in England who smoke, the proportion reporting cross-border tobacco purchases is now three times higher than it was at the start of 2019. The proportion reporting illicit tobacco purchases has not changed substantially.
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