ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The smoking rate of adult male is 68.2% in Korea and that of adolescent and women has risen recently. Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to raise the price of cigarettes by 1,000 Won per pack this year in hopes of securing funds to aid the underprivileged and discourage excessive smoking. In this study, we tried to find the relationship between tobacco price increase and willingness to quit smoking among university students, and the factors associated with willingness to quit smoking. METHOD: The data were collected by questionnaire survey from 225 university students living in Seoul. The questionnaire contained items on age, sex, smoking history, economical status and the intention to quit smoking when the tobacco price be raised. RESULT: The proportion of smokers who has the intention to quit smoking if the price of tobacco be raised by 3,000 Won was 46.2%. The factors associated with willingness to quit smoking were age of initiating smoking, opinion for price of cigarette, self efficacy scores, current plans to quit smoking, and viewpoint of changes in the rate of smokers. CONCLUSION: The results showed that tobacco price rises will increase willingness to quit smoking among university students.