Research shows interventions against drinking and smoking are cost-efficient

The interventions carried out to fight harmful alcohol drinking and smoking in Moldova are cost-efficient, a pair of studies recently conducted by the Ministry of Health show. “In Moldova the burden of diseases induced by smoking tobacco is significant. About a half of men and 7% of women are active smokers. Also, according to recently published information, Moldova ranks first in terms of pure alcohol consumed by a person in a year. In this context, the Ministry of Health conducted two studies to assess the costs, effects and cost-efficiency of the existing strategies to control alcohol consumption and smoking in Moldova”, Deputy Health Minister Mihai Magdei told a conference on the results of the studies, Info-Prim Neo reports. Mihai Magdei stressed that the public health outcomes of the strategies against drinking and smoking outweighed the required resources. “The most cost-efficient intervention against smoking was to raise taxes and prices on tobacco products, in combination with strengthening counseling efforts, placing social advertisement, forbidding smoking in closed spaces and tobacco ads”. Mihai Magdei added that the next steps in reducing alcohol consumption in a cost-efficient context would be counseling of persons at risk of addiction, launching of awareness-raising and information campaigns on the harm of alcohol, restrictions on alcohol sales in commercial outlets, and extended testing of drivers for alcohol. The studies assessing the cost-efficiency of the governmental interventions against drinking and smoking were conducted with the support of the European Union and the World Health Organization.