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Smoking Prevention Campaign Saving Billions in Smoking-Related Care 

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the American Legacy Foundation have estimated that truth�, the nations’ largest youth smoking prevention campaign, saved $1.9 billion or more in health care costs associated with tobacco use. The results were published February 12 online by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“The cost effectiveness of the truth� campaign has major tobacco policy implications,” said lead author, David Holtgrave, PhD, director of the Bloomberg School’s Institute for Global Tobacco Control and Chair of the Department of Health, Behavior and Society. “The campaign was previously shown to lead to far fewer youth initiating smoking. In the current paper, we now estimate that the campaign will avert future health care costs of roughly $1.9 billion and perhaps more, because youth who avoid smoking will avoid the negative health consequences of smoking. Even under our most pessimistic analysis, the cost per quality adjusted life year saved by the campaign is substantially below the cost of other major prevention interventions and therefore its expansion would be an excellent public health investment.” . . .

“Cost-Utility Analysis of the National truth� Campaign to Prevent Youth Smoking” was written by David R. Holtgrave, Katherine A. Wunderink, Donna M. Vallone and Cheryl G. Healton.

The research was supported by the American Legacy Foundation.

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