Employing data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the authors used the national model to estimate SAFs for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, then applied these SAFs to published state medical expenditures, by type of expenditures, to estimate total 1993 state medical expenditures attributable to smoking.
National estimates are the sums of state estimates.
Cigarette smoking accounted for a substantial portion of state and national medical expenditures in 1993, with considerable variation among states. The range across states was due to differences in smoking prevalence, health status, other socioeconomic variables used in the model, and the magnitude and patterns of state medical expenditures. Dr. Miller and Ms. Zhang are with the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Miller is a Professor, and Ms. Zhang is a PhD candidate. Ms. Rice is Professor Emerita, and Dr. Max is an Associate Professor.