Health Campaign: Smoking in the USA and How to Reduce It Essay

Introduction

The goal of the US authorities in the sphere of health care and medicine is to support the public’s health and well-being. That is why, the main objectives associated with the goal are presented in such national program as Healthy People which is revised regularly to respond to the most important issues related to the sphere of the nation’s health and lifestyle. More than ten topics are added to the recent Health People 2020 program to address the changes in the people’s health and attitudes to medicine (HealthyPeople.gov, 2014). From this point, the task of the local communities is to achieve the nationally identified health goals and objectives with the help of developing the effective health care programs which can respond to such issues as the lack of the physical activity, smoking, development of different types of diabetes, and obesity among others. Thus, it is important to focus on the approach used by the federal, state, and local authorities to address the nationally identified health objectives and to cope with the issue of smoking with references to the population’s health analysis and epidemiologic systems.

The Issue of Smoking and the Nationally Identified Health Objective

Smoking and tobacco use in different forms are often discussed as the causes of many diseases including the lung and heart diseases, respiratory diseases, cancer, asthma attacks, and problematic pregnancies. As a result, about 445,000 Americans die each year because of the development of tobacco-related illnesses. Non-smokers also become the victims of tobacco use because of the negative effects of the cigarette smoke on the people’s health (HealthyPeople.gov, 2014).

From this point, the general issue of tobacco use is addressed in Healthy People 2020 because smoking and tobacco use can increase the risks of the cancer development, severe heart diseases, and such respiratory diseases as asthma significantly. That is why, the government is oriented to complete such objectives associated with the tobacco use within the nation as the reduction of tobacco use by adults and adolescents, reduction of initiation of tobacco use among the young population, increase of the percentage related to smoking cessation, increase of tobacco-free environments, and the development of tobacco control programs (HealthyPeople.gov, 2014).

Federal, State, and Local Agencies Tasked to Address the Issue

The issue of tobacco use and smoking is addressed by the special agencies at the federal, state, and local levels in order to promote the principles of the healthy lifestyle effectively. At the federal level, the Food and Drug Administration initiated the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009 to control the realization of the tobacco use prevention strategies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the Office of Smoking and Health (OSH), specialize in developing the appropriate tobacco use prevention and control programs to implement them at the national level (CDC, 2014).

In states, the state health departments are tasked to develop and control the state’s health plans and the cessation programs with the focus on providing the necessary counseling for person who attempt to give up smoking. As a result, different states demonstrate various results in coping with the issue of tobacco use. At the local level, city and community health departments are responsible for initiating the programs to contribute to smoking cessation and promoting smoking bans. Many local organizations form coalitions to promote the ideals of the healthy lifestyle (Redmond, 2010, p. 72).

Models and Systems Used to Determine and Analyze the Issue of Smoking

To receive the information about the issue of tobacco use in the United States, it is necessary to refer to the specific models and systems used to determine and analyze the issue’s development in the country. Thus, the health care authorities can receive the necessary information about the situation and tendencies in the country with the help of vital statistics, mortality and morbidity reports, laboratory and hospital reports, specially conducted surveys and interviews, demographic and environmental data. Tobacco use tendencies in the United States are analyzed with the help of special software resources to make conclusions about the trends, and the final results or reports can be used by such systems as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) in order to developed the effective regulations to address the issue of smoking (Novick, Morrow, & Mays, 2008, p. 390). Having used the models and systems to collect and analyze the data, state governments and local authorities report to the federal authorities to contribute to the development of the effective national policies.

The Community and the Targeted Population

Referring to the example of anti-smoking policies and programs followed in Wisconsin, and in the City of Racine in particular, it is possible to note that the number of adults suffering from the smoking habit is rather stable during several years, and this problem is observed in any other local community in the United States. The authorities in Wisconsin as well as in the other states are inclined to respond to the issue of tobacco use because of its negative effects not only on smokers but also on non-smokers, influencing the health of the whole community (Fiore, Hatsukami, & Baker, 2002, p. 1769). As a result, in this case, the community can be defined as the group of smokers and non-smokers who interact actively.

To contribute to decreasing the number of adults and adolescents who use tobacco, local communities develop programs and policies which are different in relation to the specific features of the community. For instance, the community of Wisconsin is characterized by the prevalence of the adult population which comprises more than 70% in relation to the whole city’s population (Rooney, Choudhary, & Bliss, 2009, p. 440). As a result, more attention should be paid to smoking cessation and reduction strategies among the adult population. While discussing the targeted population of the tobacco use issue at the national level, it is necessary to note that male African-Americans and Caucasians belonging to the age category of 18-65 years are at risk to develop their smoking habits and to experience problems with attempting to give up tobacco use (Fiore, Hatsukami, & Baker, 2002, p. 1771).

Epidemiologic Surveillance Systems Used for Monitoring the Issue

The most actively used epidemiologic surveillance systems to monitor the development of the tobacco use issue at the national and state level are the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). These systems work to guide the policies developed to reduce tobacco use in the United States. The BRFSS and YRBSS are developed to interpret the collected data and information about the health situation in the country in relation to the concrete issues. The tendencies in the national tobacco use are analyzed with the help of the systems which use the mortality and disease reports, statistics, and recent data (Fos et al., 2012, p. 114). These systems are also based on the surveys which are conducted to demonstrate the real tendencies in the US society in relation to the use of tobacco and smoking.

The Role of Epidemiology Tools to Address the Issue of Smoking

Such epidemiology tools as risk assessments and surveys on trends in disease and health also serve to address the issue of smoking because to make the rational decision and to develop the effective anti-smoking policy, the national and state governments need different types of health care information provided by various national and local health care agencies. From this point, risk assessment provides the information on the adults and adolescents’ choices in relation to tobacco use, and these data in combination with the demographic information is necessary to develop programs to address the target population which is at risk of using tobacco (Novick, Morrow, & Mays, 2008, p. 392). The information received from reports and surveys on the trends in disease and health is also necessary to discuss the issue of tobacco use from many perspectives and with references to the connection between smoking and the development of heart and lung diseases.

Conclusion

The issue of tobacco use is the national health problem in the United States. That is why, the response to the issue is also provided with references to the objectives stated in the Healthy People 2020 program. The federal, state, and local authorities pay much attention to addressing the problem and to proposing the effective policies to predict and reduce tobacco use among the adult population and adolescents in the United States.

References

CDC. (2014). Web.

Fiore, M., Hatsukami, D., & Baker, D. (2002). Effective tobacco dependence treatment. JAMA, 288(14), 1768-1771.

Fos, P., Fine, D., Amy, B., & Zuniga, M. (2012). Managerial epidemiology for health care organizations. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

HealthyPeople.gov. (2014). Web.

Novick, L., Morrow, C., & Mays, G. (2008). Public health administration: Principles for population-based management. USA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Redmond, L. (2010). A decade of experience promoting the clinical treatment of tobacco dependence in Wisconsin. WMJ, 109(2), 71-78.

Rooney, B., Choudhary, R., & Bliss, A. (2009). Social determinants of smoking among Hmong Americans residing in Wisconsin. WMJ, 108(9), 439-446.