Health Promotion Plan: Tobacco Use
As defined by the World Health Organization (2017), health promotion entails actions and habits individuals take to reduce the adverse effects of chronic illnesses. It focuses on more than individual behavior and moves towards the environmental and social involvement. Health promotion puts focus on efforts particularly directed at minimizing the growth and seriousness of chronic illnesses and other morbidities. Health promotion programs' roles are to keep people healthy and enhance the health status of communities and individuals. They aim at engaging and empowering communities and individuals to make changes like choosing healthy behaviors that minimize risks of developing chronic diseases and other morbidities.
Planning is vital when designing a successful health plan; According to the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (2015); There are six steps that constitute a good planning process; As a health promoter, the first step will be managing the planning process, analysis situational assessment, gauging the group at risk, the objectives, results and evaluation methods. The activity to be engaged in is the cessation of tobacco use. Tobacco can be used in various ways such as smoking, chewing, or sniffing.
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In the world, there is an average of around 1.3 billion smokers. In America, cigarette smoking is among the major sources of preventable disease and death. According to the National Centre for Health Statistics, & Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (2018), it accounts for more than 450,000 deaths annually. About 14 of every 100 U.S adults within the ages of 18 and above use tobacco by smoking it. Males are more likely to be cigarette smokers than females. Tobacco use was higher in people aged between 25-64 years and lower among people between 18-24 years. People start using tobacco for various reasons such as pleasure, stress relief, peer pressure, and social rewards. The effects of smoking and tobacco use include heart disease, cancer, pregnancy complications, diabetes, lung diseases, stroke, and other illnesses (Lui, 2016). Health promotion to tobacco users is important because the more times a person is explained to compatible effects of tobacco from health professionals, he or she is likely to quit.
Individual tobacco users can use different ways to try quitting tobacco use. These ways include engaging in physical activities, practice relaxation exercises, ask for reinforcements from family members, support groups or friends, try nicotine replacement therapy, and avoid triggers and having just one cigarette (McNeil, 2017).
These methods require a user to be determined and have intrinsic motivation for quitting. Communities that have tobacco users have a role to play by openly talking about the immensity of tobacco use about its effects such as premature death, infectious diseases, and the economic burden it puts on an individual (Panda, 2015). The government’s part to play in the cessation of tobacco use include bans and restrictions on tobacco promotions, advertising, and financial support, an increase in price and tax, ensuring the labeling and packaging shows the effects of tobacco.
James who is 29 years old, is a tobacco user, who started using cigarettes when he was thirteen years. A friend in his neighborhood introduced him to smoking by daring him to smoke a cigarette and in return, he gets some money. He says that he felt nice the first time he smoked and he wanted to experience that feeling again. James works as a construction worker and after a long day at work, he smokes to reduce the amount of stress he has. One cigarette turned to a pack a day leading to his addiction. He has tried quitting a couple of times but he experiences withdrawal symptoms like nicotine cravings, sweating, abdominal cramping, nausea, headaches, and coughing. He prefers to just smoke a cigarette for the pain to stop thus the use continues. James says that he and his friends are willing to quit smoking and make better life choices that are not harmful to their health. Smoking has had adverse effects on his family as he sometimes uses upkeep money to buy cigarettes and his wife does not like him smoking in the house leading to arguments and hostility in the house. James’ case is similar to his friends and they would be happy to stop smoking.
I convinced James and his seven friends to join my health promotion group whereby we set the following goals: quit smoking in one month, track their cigarette use and triggers in a notebook, start eating vegetables and using toothpicks when one gets a smoking urge, seek support from family members, review the set goals in a month and set a new plan. I plan to ensure that all my eight members follow the goals set. The target set is for six members to have quit smoking in a month. Weekly meetings will be held, and group members will be expected to say the number of cigarettes they are currently using. This will help in checking if they are working towards the set goals.
Materials used to teach about tobacco use include: Quit smoking tips cards, quit smoking tips posters, training slides, videos with tips for quitting tobacco and the 5As approach which refers to, asking the participants about tobacco use, offer ways to quit and assessing their motivation to quit(Panda, 2015). Moreover, the materials will aid the clients to stop tobacco use and offer contact tracing. Methods to be used include pharmacological therapies and group therapy, referring members to clinics and counseling centers.
Quitting tobacco use has its challenges such as emotional connections, physical addiction, and social and behavioral connections (McNeil, 2017).To deal with these challenges I will use videos to show addiction stories of other users and encourage patients to come up with positive self-encouragement words. At the end of the health promotion program, the group members should be on the journey of completely quitting tobacco use.
Reducing the intake of tobacco decreases the risk of developing lung cancer and other diseases. Tobacco quitting should be the choice of an individual and the user should choose the preferred treatment methods. Tobacco use cessation is important as it helps people quit tobacco and reduce the number of deaths. Health promotion is therefore significant as it aids in identifying users and helping them stop their addiction and live healthier stronger lives.
References
National Centre for Health Statistics, & Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adults_data/cig_smoking/index.htm
Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (Public Health Ontario).At a glance: The six steps for planning a health promotion program. Toronto, ON Queen's Printer for Ontario; 2015.
Panda, R., D., J. S. (2015). Physician and patient concordance of report of tobacco cessation intervention in primary care in India. BMC public health , 15 (1), 456.
Lui, P. S. C. (2016). Reproductive health problems faced by men in Solomon Islands (Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology).
World Health Organization. (2017). WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2017: monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. World Health Organization.
McNeill, A., Gravely, S., D., & Hartmann‐Boyce, J. (2017). Tobacco packaging design for reducing tobacco use. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (4).
