The Adverse Effects of Smoking
Part I
Smoking is one of the significant causes of preventable death and ailment in England. It is also the leading cause of health inequalities between the poor and the rich. It consumes billions from the country’s national service every year. Despite significant progress in tackling the harm caused by tobacco, the cost to health and community continues due to extensive use of tobacco. Research has indicated that smoke-free laws have been efficacious in the reduction of the exposure to secondhand smoke and decreasing the consumption of tobacco and adding the number of tobacco quitters in England. Those who have quit smoking experience blood circulation, more comfortable breathing, and reduced blood pressure.
Smoking has adverse effects on health such as cancer and respiratory diseases. The government banned smoking in cars in the presence of children. The challenge faced by the public health is what they can be able to do to address the issue of continuous health inequalities caused by smoking in England. Socioeconomic status also leads to health inequalities that are present today in England. The poor people tend to be affected by burning rather than the rich people because they are unable to get quality treatment at the required moment and place. Therefore, smoking health harm campaign was launched to reduce the risks involved and promote the well-being of the people of England (Baum & Fisher 2014, pp.213-225).
The campaign aims at increasing awareness by underlying the instant damage caused by every single cigarette. The health harms message emphasizes the fact that 16 cigarettes can cause a mutation which can lead to cancer and hence aims to increase motivation for the users to quit. Creating awareness is essential to the people of England is critical because it helps in enlightening the community about the dangers and the effects of smoking. Many people in England do not know about smoking tobacco and the risk it possesses. Therefore creating awareness about the campaign will assist in educating the population about smoking. The recognition is essential for them because it will give them management strategies which will help them in coping with stress rather than indulging in additional solutions such as suicide (Corcoran 2013). Awareness will motivate the community to practice good habits and indulge in positive activities that will promote their well-being and live a healthy lifestyle.
Creating awareness will motivate those who smoke to quit and take care of themselves and promote a healthy life. The campaign aims at giving interventions to help the victims recover step by step with the help of medical practitioners and health experts present in the country. Furthermore, individuals in England have been affected by smoking for a more extended period. They tend to involve themselves in activities that promote smoking such as due to lack of employment and other related issues in England. Moreover, the campaign has assisted some of the individuals in making right decisions about their health. They can know the damages caused by smoking cigarettes and smoking tobacco (World Health Organization 2015).
The Smoking Health Harm Campaign
Evaluation
Health education is essential in creating awareness since the community needs to be aware of their wellbeing. I have seen that the government has worked together with the department of health and public health to provide relevant information about smoking. They have been able to reach individuals living in the rural areas as they are the people affected by this menace. Health education gives individuals in England an opportunity to progress in life in regards to health. It is vital for the community to clearly understand the causes of smoking tobacco and its adverse effect on health. Therefore, it will help them in preventing smoking in England.
More community centers are developed in the rural to assist in quality treatment and psychological issues. This created a positive relationship between the health experts and the community hence they can open up and share their concerns with them and develop a long-lasting solution to the problem (Lupton 2014,pp.174-183). The community centers provide necessary medication and also creating awareness about smoking and also create recreational activities that will enhance the participation of the individuals in the community. The events have aimed at engaging the community and promoting a healthy relationship between them and the government. It is critical for the government to protect its citizens against such risks caused by smoking.
Provision of quitting kits have also assisted in helping the sufferers to quit smoking and indulge themselves in health-seeking behaviors. The kits are available in the local pharmacies, and it is free of charge. It helped in reducing health inequity because both the rich and the poor can access the kits on a regular basis. The bags are equally distributed in England to assist in supporting the smokers to quit smoking and concentrate on their health. The campaign has helped in helping people to live independently and live healthier lives (Jha &Peto 2014, pp.60-68). Transformation of social care and community has been achieved by this campaign by dedicating time to help the victims live a healthy life.
Through this smoking harm campaign, research and innovation have been encouraged which is famous in England. It has helped both governmental and non-governmental organizations to be able to develop relevant solutions to the challenges faced by the community. This has encouraged more research in institutions of health which is vital for the government and the department of health. They have developed innovative health systems that assist in early detection of a chronic illness which prompts early treatment (Lupton 2012, pp.229-244).
Creating Awareness
The campaign has been of great importance to England and its fraternity regarding the wellbeing of its people. It has led to the maximization of economic and health productivity and improve the socioeconomic status of people in England. The health campaign initiators have worked well in promoting a healthy lifestyle and practicing hygiene seeking behaviors (Yoon, Maalouf & Sakhaee 2012, pp.2081-2092). The communities in England have also participation which is regularly encouraged. Through this, individuals in England acquire knowledge about healthy and independent life.
Models of health promotion and education include the Health Belief model and Transtheoretical model. Research indicates that the health belief model is the most applied in both health promotion and education. According to the model, an individual’s behavior is highly influenced by his or her belief or perception about a disease and the plans and policies in place to reduce its occurrence. The four perceptions of the model include perceived seriousness, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and perceived susceptibility (DiClemente, DiClemente, Salazar & Crosby 2013).
Perceived susceptibility has the highest potential of enhancing behavior change. This is because once individuals are aware that they are more likely to acquire a disease, they are motivated to ensure that they are safe from the disease. However, this is not always the case as some people fail to adopt healthy behaviors even when aware of their increased vulnerability. An example is college students who despite being aware that they at risk of contracting HIV, they still engage in unprotected sex.
Perceived seriousness describes a person’s opinion on the severity or seriousness of a disease. Perceived benefits entail a person’s belief or judgment that change in behavior will result in reduced risk of acquiring a disease or infection. It plays a significant role in the promotion of secondary prevention behaviors such as screening. Perceived barriers include a person’s evaluation of the obstacles that would prevent him or her from falling ill which influences change in behavior. The model also includes motivating factors, cue to action and self-efficacy (Green & Murphy 2014).
Cues to actions include events, things or people that motivate people to change their behavior. The use of media reports and leaflets with information on good health have a high potential of impacting positive behavior change. Self-efficacy explains a person’s belief on his or her ability to change unhealthy behaviors while motivating factors include personal factors that determine whether a new behavior will be adopted (Skinner, Tiro & Champion 2015, pp.75-94).
Evaluation
The transtheoretical model, on the other hand, includes six stages which explain how individuals modify their behaviors to acquire positive behaviors. While other models of health promotion have focused on the social and biological influences on a person’s behavior, the transtheoretical model primarily focuses on the deliberate change of a person. The stages of the model include the Precontemplation stage which includes people with no intention of adopting healthy behavior. In this stage, people are not aware of the results of their behavior or may have tried to change their behavior severally and become discouraged on their ability to change. The individuals here may also be resistant to change or lack the motivation to change (Prochaska 2013).
The second stage is the contemplation; in this stage, individuals have the intention to change. In this stage, they people are more informed on the positive and negative consequences of behavior change. The balance between the costs involved in the process as well as the benefits makes individuals stay longer at this stage. Individuals here often procrastinate on changing their behaviors. The third stage is the preparation stage which involves individuals with less focus on the past and more emphasis on the future. Making good choices and finding better solutions is a significant concern for the people. Although people here might have high anxiety, they have massive courage in the determination to change. Individuals here put into consideration many alternatives and the advantages and consequences of each before deciding on the best course of action. In this stage, people are advised to take enough time for preparation for behavior change (Prochaska 2013).
The fourth stage is the action phase, people here adhere to a particular change plan and put it into practice. The main priority of this stage is identifying healthy alternatives to the old habits as well as employing an effective problem-solving method under challenging situations. The benefits of changing behaviors is also emphasized. In this stage, people acquire good behaviors and intend to continue with the positive behavior (Bamberg 2013, pp.151-159).
The fifth stage is the maintenance phase, people here have maintained their behavior for an estimated six months and continue to stick to it. People in this stage continue to be encouraged to change their habits despite the frustrations and challenges they may encounter. In this stage, support of others is essential in sustaining the motivation to change. The last step is referred to as termination, where people do not wish to revert to their unhealthy behaviors. This phase is hardly reached, and therefore, it is always not included in health promotion programs (Montano & Kasprzy 2015, pp.95-124).
Models of Health Promotion and Education
The transtheoretical model can be used in an actual health campaign by paying maximum attention to all the stages of change as well as putting into consideration other variables of the model. In the precontemplation stage, the effects of poor health habits should be made known to the people during the health campaign to ensure effective behavior change. The health campaign should ensure that the during the contemplation stage, the benefits of behavior change outweighs the cost incurred. During the preparation stage, a health campaign should ensure that they choose better solutions and options for the people as this is a significant concern for people in this phase. As a result, individuals will be motivated to adopt good health behaviors (Kowalski, Jeznach & Tuokko 2014 pp.17-25).
An excellent and useful change plan should be implemented in the action phase. This will ensure that people stick to it and hence leaving the old habits. Practical problem-solving skills should be adopted to ensure that the challenges of the people are addressed at this stage. During the maintenance phase, the health campaign can ensure that the challenges people and frustrations that may make people revert to old practices are identified and adequately managed. Guaranteeing maximum support to the individuals is also essential (Naidoo & Wills 2016).
In conclusion, adopting healthy behavior is critical to ensuring high quality of life. Although each model has its pros and cons, they all play an essential role in helping people adopt good healthy behaviors. It is crucial for health campaigns to adopt these models to ensure that there is maximum behavior change and hence encouraging people to change their lifestyles.
References
Bamberg, S., 2013. Changing environmentally harmful behaviors: A stage model of self-regulated behavioral change. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 34, pp.151-159.
Baum, F. and Fisher, M., 2014. Why behavioural health promotion endures despite its failure to reduce health inequities. Sociology of health & illness, 36(2), pp.213-225.
Corcoran, N. ed., 2013. Communicating health: strategies for health promotion. Sage.
DiClemente, R.J., DiClemente, R.J., Salazar, L.F. and Crosby, R.A., 2013. Health behavior theory for public health. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Green, E.C. and Murphy, E., 2014. Health belief model. The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of health, illness, behavior, and society.
Jha, P. and Peto, R., 2014. Global effects of smoking, of quitting, and of taxing tobacco. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(1), pp.60-68.
Kowalski, K., Jeznach, A. and Tuokko, H.A., 2014. Stages of driving behavior change within the transtheoretical model (TM). Journal of safety research, 50, pp.17-25.
Lupton, D., 2012. M-health and health promotion: The digital cyborg and surveillance society. Social Theory & Health, 10(3), pp.229-244.
Lupton, D., 2014. Health promotion in the digital era: a critical commentary. Health promotion international, 30(1), pp.174-183.
Montano, D.E. and Kasprzyk, D., 2015. Theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, and the integrated behavioral model. Health behavior: Theory, research and practice, pp.95-124.
Naidoo, J. and Wills, J., 2016. Foundations for Health Promotion-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Prochaska, J.O., 2013. Transtheoretical model of behavior change. In Encyclopedia of behavioral medicine (pp. 1997-2000). Springer New York.
Rice, R.E. and Atkin, C.K. eds., 2012. Public communication campaigns. Sage.
Skinner, C.S., Tiro, J. and Champion, V.L., 2015. The health belief model. Health behavior: theory, research, and practice. 5th ed. San Francisco (US): Jossey-Bass, pp.75-94.
World Health Organization, 2015. Fact sheet: waterpipe tobacco smoking and health.
Yoon, V., Maalouf, N.M. and Sakhaee, K., 2012. The effects of smoking on bone metabolism. Osteoporosis International, 23(8), pp.2081-2092.
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