Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Oct 21:11:1453969.
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1453969. eCollection 2024.

Cost-effectiveness of tax policies on promoting sustainable diets in Iran: a modeling study

Amin Mokari-Yamchi  1 , Nasrin Omidvar  2 , Manoochehr Karami  3 , Morteza Tahamipour Zarandi  4 , Hassan Eini-Zinab  2
Affiliations

Cost-effectiveness of tax policies on promoting sustainable diets in Iran: a modeling study

Amin Mokari-Yamchi et al. Front Nutr. .

Abstract

Background: Implementation of food taxes may promote sustainable diets in a society. This study estimates the potential short-term impacts of taxes on sugar and sweets (SAS), sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) and hydrogenated oil and animal fats (HOAF) in Iran through a social cost-effectiveness analysis.

Methods: In this study, three tax scenarios were evaluated, including a 25% tax on SASs, a 30% tax on SSBs, and a 30% tax on HOAFs. The data from Iran's 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) were utilized, and a simulated population of 1 million individuals aged over 25 years was analyzed. Population impact fraction (PIF) was calculated to estimate the averted number of cases and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) under each policy scenario. Additionally, the study assessed water and carbon footprints, as well as all associated costs. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated through incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) and comparison with WHO-recommended thresholds.

Results: Implementation of taxes on SASs and HOAFs resulted in reductions of 1.09 and 1.08% in water footprint, as well as 0.47 and 1.05% in carbon footprint, respectively. In terms of population health, the interventions resulted in averting 343.92 DALYs (95% UI = 318.62-369.36) for the SSB tax and 1219.01 DALYs (95% UI = 1123.05-1315.77) for the tax on HOAFs. Additionally, the tax on SASs averted 1028.09 DALYs (95% UI = 947.16-1,109). All scenarios were deemed cost-effective based on the WHO threshold for ICER, with values of 0.26 billion Rials/DALY, 0.54 billion Rials/DALY, and 0.17 billion Rials/DALY, respectively.

Conclusion: The studied tax scenarios could generate substantial health gains and be cost-effective in Iran. It is recommended that policymakers consider implementing such price policies to promote healthy and sustainable diets.

Keywords: Iran; cost-effectiveness; modeling study; sustainable diets; tax policy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age and sex structure of the hypothetical population of 1 million Iranians over 25 years old in 2019–2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Water and carbon footprint percent changes following tax policy interventions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (BR/DALY) analysis in four sensitivity scenarios. Scenario A: 10% tax rate, Scenario B: 50% tax rate, Scenario C: water price based on the accounting value, Scenario D: water price based on industrial value.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Laine JE, Huybrechts I, Gunter MJ, Ferrari P, Weiderpass E, Tsilidis K, et al. . Co-benefits from sustainable dietary shifts for population and environmental health: an assessment from a large European cohort study. Lancet Planetary Health. (2021) 5:e786–96. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00250-3, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Collaborators GRF. Global, regional, and National Comparative Risk Assessment of 79 Behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2015. Lancet (London, England). (2016) 388:1659. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31679-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tubiello FN, Rosenzweig C, Conchedda G, Karl K, Gütschow J, Xueyao P, et al. . Greenhouse gas emissions from food systems: building the evidence base. Environ Res Lett. (2021) 16:065007. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac018e - DOI
    1. Gold K, McBurney R. Sustainable diets and biodiversity: Directions and solutions for policy, Research and Action. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy: (2010):108–114.
    1. Organization WH . Fiscal policies for diet and prevention of noncommunicable diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: Technical meeting report, 2015; (2016).

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This article is part of a PhD thesis on food and nutrition policy, funded and supported by the National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (ethics code: IR.SBMU.nnftri.Rec.1400.053).

LinkOut - more resources