Essay Sample on Community Interventions Against Tobacco Smoking

Introduction

The health patterns of the rural town of Sometown from the health indicators show that they are failing in different areas of wellness. There are red flags on nutrition, and tobacco use and they raise significant concerns. This paper will focus on the observed health patterns of smoking of more than one pack in a day. The statistics show a value of at thirty-seven percent on smoking which is higher than for the entire State which is at twenty-three percent. In America, people living in rural areas use all forms of tobacco at higher rates than those living in urban areas. Smoking is also prevalent among men and the poor and vulnerable groups in the society. The community leaders at Sometown are concerned about the health indicators and therefore, seek relevant interventions to curb the high rates of smoking. The tobacco issue in Sometown is peculiar as consumption involves a variety of smoking and smokeless forms. Understanding the issue in Sometown involves focusing efforts on adequate interventions and investigating the groups that would help impact the correct measure of the interventions to bring forth modalities of tobacco control.

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Smoking not only possesses dangers to the individual but the community as a whole. Statistics indicate that from 2005 to 2013 an approximate of eighteen million deaths were related to smoking which translates to 500,000 deaths in a year (Jamal et al., 2014). Tobacco affects the young mostly due to the peer pressure leading to premature deaths from smoking-related illnesses. In addition to the premature deaths, the economic costs to the community are high. Numerous finances go into societal expenses attributed to smoking and for the direct care of the health of adults and also to cater for lost productivity due to exposure to passive smoke (Ekpu, & Brown, 2015). Passive smoking or second-hand smoke is more toxic as it contains particulate matter than the direct smoke. More than 4000 chemicals have been found in tobacco smoke (US Surgeon General, 2006). The toxin tends to run in windows an air filters and can recycle back into the air from the filters sometimes to as 'third-hand smoke.' It has been connected with an increased risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, and other respiratory diseases, sudden infant death in children and ear infections. The current smoker's excess medical costs could be prevented if they decided to quit.

Reversing this human-made epidemic should be the top priority of every affected community. The epidemic can be resolved by making the community aware of the dangerous effects of tobacco, learning about the proven effective tobacco measure of control, national programs and legislation prevailing in the nation, and then engaging fully with regular programs to completely stop the epidemic and move towards a smoking free community. According to a study done in Massachusetts and California, the community treatment of smoking is more effective than individualized patient interventions (Jamal et al., 2014). The most significant effect is received when community and individualized strategies are used in combination when society changes the norms and offer direct assistance to individuals who are seeking to quit smoking cigarettes. Social interventions are essential since without them little can be expected from personalized counselling and medications. Use of medications to conquer behaviours of a large group may not be effective in fostering large-scale transformations. Interventions are based on changing the community norms. A vital element is that people heal, thrive and develop new knowledge in social interactions.

Collaborating with political leaders, volunteer groups, the health departments available in different institutions and religious leaders in the town can help in implementing developed interventions. Public health campaigns preaching the dangers of smoking can help reduce the level of smoking in Sometown. For instance, in Massachusetts, the mayor got involved to support the growing awareness programs reaching the public by leading thirty-two communities to adopt policies against smoking (Jamal et al., 2014). The States see smoking as a disease. Another instance, California has a large-scale awareness program of tobacco control, and it deals with telling the public of the dangers of smoking tobacco to their health, the environment and the economy (Jamal et al., 2014). Debates among local groups in the community centre can significantly contribute to dialogue amongst those with opposing views about quitting smoking. Leading meaningful debates among the people, carrying out public education in churches, workplaces, and schools, offering expert knowledge on harm and political leadership and support, act as the basis for greater awareness and enforcement.

Supporting the formulations of bans on smoking in public places and bars can make a significant contribution to public health. These bans need massive public support for them to be effective. The community members need to be pre-vaccinate the d with information about the significance of such a prohibition for the policy to work. Bans have met ample rejection in the majority of the areas where it is viewed as a violation of individual rights (World Health Organization, 2013). However, the view tampers with the understanding that personal rights and sovereignty do not justify harm to others in public and that clean air is an open good which leads to better health for all.

As a health practitioner, I would seek the help of the health departments present in the town to build tobacco smoking cessation services. Several policy measures can be implemented to control tobacco use at the municipal level to help fight the battle against smoking. However, the efforts may not benefit the current tobacco consumer directly as nicotine is very addictive making it difficult to quit. According to a study by Cahill, et al. (2013), shows almost seventy percent of the tobacco users in the United States wish to quit, but only three to five percent succeed in doing so. Different centres can be set up in the town to help people quit smoking. The process for tobacco cessation takes different steps; one, evaluating the habit then going through the process of simple advice, behaviour-change counselling, and pharmacological treatments. The inclination of change can then be gauged for the entire group, and then specific interventions can be tailor-made to increase the chances of quitting. Cahill et al. (2013), suggests the use of pharmacological involvements as they have quit rates of about twenty-five percent when used correctly. Follow up is vital through repeated counselling to avoid relapse. In order to reach more people, the increase can be done by establishing mobile centres in schools, workplaces, among youth and women groups and in colleges. The workplace would be a brilliant place to conduct a tobacco cessation program as it offers an opportunity to interrelate with large numbers of people at the same time. The technical medical staff can become trained in tobacco cessation activities, which promises a positive established population for follow up.

Planning economic interventions by working with the political leadership of the town to enforce tax increments on cigarettes and other tobacco-related products. A study by the World Health Organization. (2015), indicate that increasing taxes on cigarettes is more cost effective relative to health interventions. A price increase on all tobacco products of, for instance, ten percent, would reduce smoking by increasing likelihood of stopping among current users, preventing initiations, reducing chances of relapse from former smokers, and reducing consumption from current smokers (World Health Organization, 2015). Increase in tobacco taxation improves community health by reducing tobacco use and hence helps the society generate additional revenue and reduce the expenditure of diseases brought by the smoking of tobacco. As an alternative to tobacco laden cigarettes, there can be the introduction of e-cigarettes at subsidized costs. E-cigarettes contain artificial nicotine, and they do not have tobacco. This alternative will reduce tobacco-related deaths and have been found to reduce the rate of addiction to nicotine. However, scientists are yet to determine the health impacts of long-term uses of e-cigarettes or the passive consequences of the e-cigarette vapour (NIDA, 2018, January 5). Economic interventions will improve the community's health and will assist increase the financial stature of the town. According to Whittaker et al. (2016), additional activities like family counselling, behavioural interventions in pregnant women and adolescents, telephone driven interventions such as devoted quitlines and mobile as well as web-based technologies in combination gives positive results compared to only interventions.

References

Cahill, K., Stevens, S., Perera, R., & Lancaster, T. (2013). Pharmacological interventions for smoking cessation: an overview of reviews. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (5).

Ekpu, V. U., & Brown, A. K. (2015). The Economic Impact of Smoking and Of Reducing Smoking Prevalence: Review of Evidence. Tobacco Use Insights, 8, TUI-S15628

Jamal, A., Agaku, I., T., O'Connor, E., King, B. A., Kenner, J. B., & Neff, L. (2014). Current cigarette smoking among adults-United States, 2005-2013. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 63(47), 1108-1112.

NIDA. (2018, January 5). Tobacco, Nicotine, and E-Cigarettes. Retrieved from: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/tobacco-nicotine-e-cigarettes

US Surgeon General, (2006). The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of The Surgeon General, Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Coordinating Center for Health Promotion, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 709.

Whittaker, R., McRobbie, H., Bullen, C., Rodgers, A., & Gu, Y. (2016). Mobile phone-based interventions for smoking cessation. The Cochrane Library.

World Health Organization. (2013). WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2013: enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship. World Health Organization.

World Health Organization. (2015). WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2015: raising taxes on tobacco. World Health Organization.