Health Promotion Project: The Harmful Effects Of Tobacco Use (Research Paper Sample)

Health Promotion Project: Health Impacts of Tobacco Use Student’s Name Course Institutional Affiliation 23 September 2018 Health Promotion Project: Health Impacts of Tobacco Use Section 1 The Healthy People initiative was instituted in the United States of America more than 30 years ago and it constitutes a set of comprehensive goals as well as objectives set to be achieved within a decade. The aim of the initiative is to promote the health of Americans through elimination of health disparities. The fourth generation of the initiative the Healthy People 2020 was launched in 2020 an it has a number of overreaching goals all of which are geared towards improvement of health of all groups in the United States ("Tobacco Use | Healthy People 2020," n.d.). The Healthy People 2020 supports the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in promotion of health within the United States and thus creation of a healthier nation. HHS’ action plan against tobacco use provides a number of strategic actions, which are evidence-based and scientifically proven in real-world setting. Therefore, this health promotion program will focus on one of these strategies, i.e. decrease the initiation of tobacco use among young people and increase access to information regarding smoking cessation and treatment options to individuals who currently smoke or vape. This strategy will focus not only on the older generation of smoking adults, but also on the younger people who get initiated into smoking at a very young age. Overview of The Mission of the Program and Target Community It is therefore evident that the use of tobacco is crippling the United States, hence the mission of this health promotion program is to reduce tobacco use in three rural clinics located in three counties of Southeast Missouri, by capitalizing on strategies provided by the HHS strategic action for reduction of the use of tobacco and thereby reduce the associated negative health effects. This promotion program will ensure that information on tobacco smoking cessation and available treatment approaches reaches as many people as possible. The health promotion program will target people in three rural health clinics located in three counties in the State of Missouri. The target population will be all community members from the selected communities, who share the same cultural beliefs. It will focus on adults, both male and female, as well as adolescents since these are the most affected group of people. The strategy selected for this program is based on the fact that many young people in the United States being smoking at the age of 15-17 years, without any understanding of the harm that the activity causes to their health. In addition to this, adults who smoke, find it difficult to attend treatment programs, while others lack accessibility. Therefore, the mission of this program is to ensure that the needs of the two groups of people are addressed with regards to tobacco use. Section 2 Background and Clinical Significance of Tobacco Use According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.5 billion people smoked tobacco in 2015. These numbers have been increasing over the years and currently, tobacco use has reached epidemic proportions (Bottorff et al., 2014.) The tobacco industry is a significantly lucrative one with over 18 million cigarettes being sold every day throughout the world. It is unfortunate that out of the total number of annual smokers, more than 80% of these are from the low income and middle income communities, with the industry therefore making a majority of its profits from some of the poorest people in the world (Dogra, 2018). Tobacco use is the generally the use of products originating from the tobacco plant. The major forms by which tobacco is used throughout the world are inhalation via smoking and chewing. Of the two forms, the most common form of use is inhalation where it is used in the form of cigarettes and cigars. There is also another form of tobacco known as smokeless tobacco, which is commonly known as snus, and in some countries such as Sweden, its use is common (Caraballo,2017) Effects of Tobacco Use on the Community and on the Healthcare System Tobacco use has been largely associated with a high number of preventable and premature deaths not only in the United States but also throughout the world. Tobacco is not only harmful to its users, but to also those who inhale the second hand smoke. There are numerous serious health conditions that are associated with tobacco use and most of them are non-communicable diseases (NCD’s). smoking has been known for the longest period of time to be a major risk factor for conditions such as heart diseases, pulmonary diseases, reproductive health problems, diabetes, as well as various types of cancer (Filippidis, 2018). Tons of scientific knowledge exists which proves that tobacco has detrimental health not only to its smokers also to those exposed to secondhand smoke. Since 1964, more than 20 million Americans have lost their lives due to tobacco smoking (Bottorff et al., 2014). There is a wide range of serious health conditions caused by tobacco, with close to half a million Americans losing their lives annually due to tobacco-related illnesses. The nation not only suffers health wise due to tobacco use, but also economically, where more than $300 billion are spent annually on both medical care and loss of productivity, with medical care spending almost $170 billion and loss of productivity leading to loss of over $156 billion. In addition, more than $5.6 billion is lost in productivity due to secondhand smoke. Additionally, 16 million Americans live with one or more chronic illnesses caused by tobacco, whose treatment cause billions of money (Haighton, Taylor, & Rutter, 2017). Section 3 Goals and Interventions The mission of this health promotion program is to reduce the use of tobacco among people in three rural clinics in three counties in the State of Missouri. The major goal is to ensure that deaths associated with tobacco use are reduced while the two main objectives of the program will be reducing the initiation of tobacco use among young people and increasing dissemination of information involving cessation of smoking and treatment of current smokers. To achieve the goal and the objectives, various activities/interventions will be carried out in the community. These include; peer education, mass media campaigns, theater in health promotion and community mobilization (Harvey & Chadi, 2016). These activities will be carried out in the three selected clinics and the program will involve a number of people since it will be covering three counties. These interventions will majorly be community focused rather that individual focused since studies establish that it is much easier to change the attitude of a whole community more that it is to change the attitude of an individual (Filippidis, 2018). Peer education, will involve organization of small groups of individuals within the community where people will be advised on the various risks of tobacco smoking. To ensure effectivity of the intervention, community members will be given a chance to interact with the educator. The theoretical model that will be used as a framework is the participatory model members will feel a sense of belonging and in addition they will follow the advices given closely. A theater for health promotion will be set up in ever clinic, where awareness will be created on the availability of treatment options for the smokers (Fucito et al., 2016). In addition, community members will be advised on where to access assistance regarding cessation. Mass media advocacy will be an effective intervention for the young people, since the campaign will be focused on discouraging initiation of smoking habits by the young people. Another form of mass media campaign that will be effective for the young people is social media campaign. Considering the fact that young people spend a majority of their time on the internet, posting anti-smoke campaign on the internet will be an effective way of gaining their attention. The last method of intervention for the program will be community mobilization, will be mobilized and assisted to embrace change and cease to smoke tobacco from a social perspective. With respect to research from other studies, this is expected to be the most effective intervention since it will focus on the social domains of the community members including their cultural beliefs. All of the above mentioned interventions will take place in three selected healthcare clinics in three different counties of the State of Missouri (Harvey & Chadi, 2016). Involved Organizations Considering that the program will be carried out in three different counties, different funding organization, who share the same goal of improving the health of people will be involved in the program. The Missouri Department of Health and senior services will be the main program involved in the program since it is the major organization that develops prevention strategies in Missouri. Another influential organization that will be involved in the program will be Missouri Foundation of Health which encourages positive change within communities through collaboration with non-profit organization. In addition to these two organizations, Missouri Public Health organization will identify public health problems in Missouri and initiation action in collaboration with other stakeholders. Section 4 Literature Review on Tobacco Use Cessation In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered tobacco, and since then, it has been a part of human culture. Current statistics indicate that tobacco causes over five million deaths globally (one in every ten adults). Different studies have been conducted to establish the prevalence of tobacco usage and the different variation of usage according to age, gender and ethnicity. Despite th...