Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Smoking and Health Changes in Society
The rising cost of healthcare continues to be one of the most important contemporary social issues in the United States. Among other things, a focus on the importance of preventative medicine will be necessary to make meaningful improvements to American healthcare and to the overall health of the American population. Smoking cessation will necessarily play a crucial role that respect, because of the magnitude of the harms to society. Accomplishing that on a meaningful level will require a fully integrated approach that encompasses, legislative changes, increased regulation of the tobacco industry, community education, and, of course, a fundamental emphasis of smoking cessation throughout the healthcare community.
The Magnitude of Social Harm Caused by Smoking
In the U.S. alone, smoking-related illness is directly responsible for approximately 400,000 preventable...
That is more than the number of deaths from illicit drug use, violent crime, and vehicular accidents combined. In addition to the preventable deaths caused by smoking, there are tremendous economic harms such as the billions of dollars spent annually treating the medical ailments attributable to smoking and the billions of dollars lost in the form of employee absenteeism for smoking-related illness and the aggravation of symptoms of other health issues caused by smoking. Smoking also reduces work productivity because it accounts for wasted work time and the reduction in work productivity in the form of constant smoking breaks taken by smokers in the vocational setting.
Finally, smoking is a legitimate health risk that threatens nonsmokers as well through second-hand smoke and even third-hand smoke. Second-hand smoking refers to the unintentional inhalation…
The Comprehensive Legislative, Regulatory, and Healthcare Approach
Smoking-related disease and death have both declined substantially in the U.S. because of the proven effectiveness of legislation such as prohibition of smoking in the workplace and in bars, restaurants, public transportation, and many types of public areas. The evidence also demonstrates a direct reduction in smoking that has been achieved through the use of taxation to increase the price of smoking products. In 2009, President Obama signed important legislation finally bringing tobacco products under the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
However, the U.S. still lacks a comprehensive and unified smoking-cessation approach within the healthcare system. This represents a significant gap between what is known about the benefits of smoking prevention programs and the influence of healthcare professionals on patient behavior. Nurses, in particular, have tremendous influence through their patient counseling and patient education opportunities. Ultimately, integrating healthcare smoking prevention resources with other existing approaches will be the key to achieving the long-term goals of eliminating smoking as the most significant preventable risk to human health in American society.
Figure 1 portrays the state of Maryland, the location for the focus of this DRP. Figure 1: Map of Maryland, the State (Google Maps, 2009) 1.3 Study Structure Organization of the Study The following five chapters constitute the body of Chapter I: Introduction Chapter II: Review of the Literature Chapter III: Methods and Results Chapter IV: Chapter V: Conclusions, Recommendations, and Implications Chapter I: Introduction During Chapter I, the researcher presents this study's focus, as it relates to the
All these variables are viewed to have a direct effect on the student as an individual thus are important to consider. School-level variables There are variables that will be considered at school-level and these will be generated from the responses or data collected from the individual variables. The first variable in this case is the prevalence of rules or policy banning smoking in schools and this will be deduced from the
Psychosocial factors, such as depression, anxiety and social support, also induce drinking. This study confirmed that social cognitive factors drove college students to report on their own drinking. Psychosocial motives drove them to do so only at 1%. Social support was the only significant psychosocial predictor. The awareness of both the positive and negative consequences of drinking was quite likely behind the willingness of college students to report on
Adolescent Substance Use Screening Instruments: 10-Year Critical Review of the Research Literature Over ten million teenagers in the United States admit in a national survey that they drink alcohol, although it is illegal under the age of 21 in all states. In some studies, nearly one-quarter of school-age children both smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol. Over four thousand adolescents every day try marijuana for the first time. The dangers of use,
Forgiveness on human health. In its simplest form, the purpose of the study is to evaluate human psychological stress that might constitute a risk factor for heart disease. Further, the study will also evaluate the impact of forgiveness on heart disease. However, such a simple dissertation clearly demands further definition. What, exactly, do we signify when we speak of heart disease? What is properly considered as forgiveness? What impact does
" (United Nations, 2000) The Household Budget Survey 1996/1997 reported that in excess of 14.5 of households in Mauritius are presently living below the poverty line and economic development has been stalled due to the "…rising cost of labor erosion of the protected international markets due to gradual effects of globalization and liberalization and increasing competition with other countries…" (United Nations, 2000) The distribution aspect of income and wealth has not