Tobacco use prevention among teenagers in Cleveland County

Risk Factor Prevention

Risk factor and population

The risk factor addressed in this paper is the use of Tobacco. Tobacco is a plant with a substance called nicotine tartrate. Tobacco can be chewed, smoked and snuffed. Tobacco is associated with the onset of the most heart and lung diseases such as heart attacks, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, mouth and larynx cancer among others. Tobacco being a health risk is propagated by its addictive substance nicotine (Derek Yach, 2000).

Current statistics in Cleveland indicate that the teenagers aged between 14-18 are more at risk of tobacco use and most of them are nicotine dependent especially those of minority groups (native Americans represented by 4% of the population, the blacks also at 4% and the Hispanic at 4% of the Cleveland population) (CDC, 2000).

Contributing factors

The teenagers are nowadays more at risk because of the change in technology and the peer pressure among them. With the current technology, students are exposed advertisement and materials such as magazines, newspapers and the internet, which portrays smoking to be the current trend, hence misleading them (Colby, 2000). Teenagers in the world today are more driven be what their friends do or by what those who they relate to do. Due to this peer pressure, they are exposed to early consumption of alcohol and other drugs including cigarettes. Other reasons include; teenagers perception of them not being prone to illnesses arising from tobacco consumption, increase in stress levels, curiosity, while other do for rebellious reasons.

There are those health determinants / factors that facilitate the incidence of a tobacco use within Cleveland County. The key determinants include socioeconomic status, access to care and insurance policy. While, other determinants are; age, sex, race, education and risky health behavior among people.

Socioeconomic status is a serious health determinant because it is inversely linked to the morbidity and mortality of tobacco related diseases. Some of the people in Cleveland who live below the poverty level are more prone to use and contacting of tobacco associated diseases. This is because acquiring of diseases associated with tobacco consumption is mostly contributed by their living condition and lifestyle, i.e. poor housing, inadequate sanitation, malnutrition and hazardous occupation. All these makes the poor more prone to diseases linked to tobacco use than any other social class. Other cumulative characteristics, that makes the poor more prone to tobacco related diseases include, low level of education, low occupation status, low wages and high unemployment rate. All these contribute towards their tobacco use acquiring of tobacco related diseases (Stanhope, 2010).

Access to healthcare is also a significant determinant to use and acquiring of tobacco related diseases. The main reason towards the delay, difficulty or failure to access of health care include, expensive nature of health services, hence, inability to afford and a number of insurance related reasons such as the physicians refusal to accept their insurance plan, the client's preexisting condition, and the insurer not approving to issue the cover or even pay for the care.

The level of uninsured people is on the rise hence affecting the utilization of tobacco related diseases. The survey done in 2008, indicate the number of people in U.S. who were not insured rose to 47 million (Stanhope, 2010). This is contributed by the fact that many workers are not insured because of, having low paying jobs, temporary or part time jobs or jobs at small businesses.

For example, Medicaid insurance which is intended to improve access to healthcare for the poor is quite underutilized. While most of the Americans with Medicaid insurance, very few of them can still access the necessary health care services such as prescription of drugs, dental care, surgery and eyeglasses. Other hindrances in Cleveland that contribute to the poor's inability to access health care include, distance to the hospital, lack of time or information, communication problem, and community characteristics which include, the prevalence of people consuming tobacco cause overstretching of the facility, wealth and size of the community (Stanhope, 2010). Rationing of health care has also led to reduced quality of services and access to health care. This is shown by the healthcare providers' refusal to accept Medicaid clients especially those in need of essential services.

Age and sex are other vital health determinants; teenagers are more prone to tobacco use. Most of the initial consumption which will determine whether a person will be addicted to it or not starts from his/her teenage years, therefore, the teenage years are the most significant years as far as tobacco use are concerned. On the other hand, male beings are more prone to tobacco use than the female species; hence, determining the prevalence of tobacco related diseases among males than women. Government policies existing in a Cleveland country also determines the use of tobacco. When the government has relaxed its policies through its taxes and legislation, it promotes acquiring and use of tobacco and its related products.

In the past 30 years, the social economic conditions of people have significantly changed, the population has vastly increased. This increase in population has its impacts to the health of the population. Some of its impacts include, health centers being overstretched to meet the high demands and lack of parents guidance to children due to the harsh economic times.

Also, there are notable changes in biological and genetic composition of the present population; this is seen by the presence of more life limiting diseases which are nowadays affecting the younger generation. For example cancer and heart cases has been on the rise with most cases being found on young people, this is because their genetic patterns are changing hence rendering them more prone to these major illnesses.

Targeted Goals

The goal is to reduce disability, illnesses and death associated with tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. Some of the objective of healthy people 2020 are, to reduce tobacco use among the adolescence, to reduce the proportion of adolescent and young adults of grade 6-12 who are exposed to tobacco advertising and promotion, to reduce the illegal sales rate to minors through enforcement of laws prohibiting the sales of tobacco products to minors and lastly, to increase tobacco free zones In schools including all school facilities, property, vehicles and events (Myers, 2000).

Tobacco use among the teenagers may be reduced by providing more health education to the teenagers on the effects of consumption of tobacco. Also, by prohibiting advertising of tobacco use in television, internet, magazines, etc. can considerably contribute towards a decline of new tobacco use cases. By putting measures to have tobacco free zones in schools will enable more students not to be influences or even come into contact with tobacco, which might lead to their addiction and eventual onset of tobacco related diseases.

The local authority in Cleveland county has tried to enforce these intervention strategies to reduce tobacco use among teenagers such as encouragement of health education in schools, enacting a law that prevents sales of tobacco to minors, also having tobacco free zones to avoid initiation of smoking behavior among children and also to reduce the incidence of diseases caused by second hand smoke.

Intervention

Intervention strategies are divided into clinical and community interventions. Both in Cleveland and Oklahoma State, similar interventions have been put in place to avoid teenage initiation of tobacco use, also to help those already using to stop. Clinical interventions put in place include, counseling of those teenagers who are already using tobacco and provide them with tobacco cessation. While, one of the community intervention strategies are, increase in the unit price of tobacco increased to hinder teenagers from buying hence, decreased tobacco use initiation among them. Also, there are efforts to restrict access of tobacco for minors, aided by community support to stop teenage access to tobacco. Worksite / school health promotion has also been enhanced to enlighten the students on the effects of tobacco use (Myers, 2000).

Another strategy which might be employed is the use of other teenagers as behavior change agents amongst their peers. This is where; selected teenagers are trained to act as peer educators and anti-tobacco use ambassadors within their neighborhood's and at school. These peer educators are to be selected from different ethnic groups to deal with the cultural factors that might arise during the implementation. The county authority should support this strategy financially and in any other way possible. Some of the barriers that might be faced are like uncooperative in parents whose children have been selected.

Disparities and advocacy

Disparities arise from the different race in the neighborhoods, many teenagers and youths have formed racial groups with have led to breakdown of communication channels and unity among these communities, hence straining provision of health care services. Advocacy can only be achieved in schools and should start at an early age so that as they grow up, they do not discriminate their fellow teenagers on racial or ethnic basis.

Summary and conclusion

Tobacco use is nowadays one of the key contributing factors towards the present life threatening diseases all over the world. The targeted groups who use tobacco products is changing over the years from the elderly to teenagers. Therefore, all efforts made towards reducing and even stopping its use should be channeled towards stopping its initial use. All the efforts made towards reducing its use can only bare fruits if there is political will and acceptance among the people. Everybody from parents, community and the law makers, should come together and save the younger population from acquiring this life threatening ailments.

Conclusion

All in all, the fight towards having a tobacco free world are long underway and with the current consumption trend and change in the world's most killer diseases, all efforts should be channeled towards avoiding the initial use of the product and those already in use should be encouraged to stop through replacement of cigarettes with cessation to break them from the addiction cause by nicotine. More efforts should be made, from advancement in medical technologies so as to come up with vaccines which will prevent the incidence of some of these killer diseases, to stopping tobacco's production and initial use by having a universally acceptable regulation worldwide.