Introduction
Smoking is among the most common habits globally. It is supposedly a way of unwinding and relaxing among smokers after a stressful event or a hard day’s work. Despite the assertion, a variety of diseases have been attributed to smoking particularly for long-term smokers.
Smoking is a substantial risk factor for a variety of health challenges including lung cancer, emphysema, and cardiovascular ailments. In cases where the ailments originate from other causes, smoking speeds up the development of health conditions.
The advancements in medical awareness and technology make it possible for individuals to pinpoint a variety of deadly diseases attributed to smoking. Actually, smoking is the leading avoidable grounds for fatality globally. In the United States, it claims hundred thousands of lives.
Main Body
Nicotine is a chemical element present in many substances including cigarettes. Once an individual uses nicotine-containing products regularly, they are susceptible to addiction particularly when the product is smoked. Habitual cigarette users become so obsessed that it is almost impossible to abstain from smoking. Rehabilitation techniques are hence imperative in assisting smokers to quit smoking.
Larson and Sydeman (2013) indicate that smoking is among the leading risks for coronary cardiac disease (CHD) in the United States. When compared to non-smokers, the odds ratio (OR) for myo-cardiac infarction is around 2.5 for retirement-aged adults.
On the other hand, the OR for cardiovascular conditions is around 2 (1-3). In addition, upon a cardiac occurrence, a cigarette user is 2 times likely to have a restenosis (Larson & Sydeman, 2013). The victim may also die following a cardiovascular disease especially when they are above 55 years.
The authors indicate that patients with coronary cardiac disease average an estimated decrease in death risk of 36 percent upon quitting. An average of 46 percent risk decrease is projected for myocardial infarction patients. Unfortunately, most smokers find it difficult or impossible to quit smoking on their own prerogative and effort.
Determined smokers wishing to quit hence require various intervention strategies to help them out of the smoking trap. Different intervention strategies indicate different levels of effectiveness for different patients.
Uncomplicated but concise advice from medical practitioner to a smoker increases the odds of quitting by up to 70 percent compared to nonintervention (Larson & Sydeman, 2013). Group behavior therapy increases the chances of successful quitting by twofold which is comparable to individual patient counseling. The authors indicate that individual counseling is superior to nonintervention.
They claim that rehabilitation efforts that are more concentrated reflect no improvement in self-restraint rates. Apparently, self-help interventions are the least successful. Evidence does not exist on their additional benefits in permutation with counseling. The quitting numbers are threefold over for inpatients in hospital and care homes compared to smokers in conventional home settings.
Larson and Sydeman (2013) conclude that individuals with Type D Personality do not indicate CHD risk association. However, there is a strong link between tobacco smoking and CHD. Smoking increases the chances of mortality. For CHD patients, interventions ought to begin in the hospital. Consequently, it should last for at least one month upon discharge.
Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable mortality among the US population (Getsios & Marton, 2013). It leads to grave tobacco-related conditions such as lung cancer, persistent respiratory diseases, cardiac diseases, and stroke. Despite the fact that tobacco use has declined in recent years, 19 percent of adults continue to smoke. Majority of smokers who attempt to quit relapse.
The dependence on tobacco is perceived as a chronic disease in itself. It requires numerous attempts to cease smoking. It is estimated that 1 in 4 smokers who attempt to quit on their own succeed. The rest relapse and never attempt quitting on their own unless they seek rehabilitation services.
Unassisted cessation attempts are popular. However, majority of smokers who successfully quit seek cessation medication. Over 40 percent continue to use medication to sustain the attempt (Getsios & Marton, 2013).
According to Getsios and Marton (2013) most of the economic models that evaluate the effects of smoke quitting rehabilitation consider the influence of a single quit attempt. The evaluations are based on long-term health and financial outcomes. They often presume that smokers who fail in their cessation attempt or be successful, but later relapse, continue smoking for the rest of their life.
The motivation to quit is an essential construct in the smoking termination process (Getsios & Marton, 2013). Despite this fact, existing literature is devoid of the agreement on how such motivation is described and calculated. Among the general smoking population, the motivation to quit smoking is gauged against the individual’s willingness to seek interventions as well as using facts to support the cessation attempts.
Additionally, a variety of motivating factors such as overt self-claimed urge to quit, economic and physical conditions, anxiety and expectancies as well as change in attitude towards tobacco are among the predicting factors that indicate the attempt to quit for general smokers.
Conversely, for cerebral health patient smokers, a substantial percentage would want to. Using the Trans-theoretical Model of behavior change, the authors investigate the occurrence of future ‘willingness to quit’ among patients with schizophrenia, associated psychotic disorders, and depression. For instance, between 19 and 38 percent of smoking mental health patients consider quitting within a month.
Such willingness can effectively be translated into victorious quitting. The quitting rates among such patients can be up to 22 percent. However, the goal can only be achieved when merged psychosocial and pharmacological interventions are used.
Comprehending the smoker’s motivation to quit and related factors plays a significant role in helping clinical workers to address the use of tobacco in inpatient surroundings. The understanding may assist in the progression and delivery of efficient nicotine-dependence treatment.
Diverse behavioral and pharmacologic rehabilitations for tobacco use cessation have demonstrated efficacy. Consequently, the US department of health and human services advocates the use of medication and behavioral treatment for smoke quitting. An array of smoking prevention and management activities indicate substantial decrease in tobacco use during the last three decades.
The majority of wide-ranging and available methods utilized in these social campaigns include mass media smoke-quitting campaigns. These campaigns have been success in reducing the number of smokers. However, their efficacy at the personal levels is not vivid (Getsios & Marton, 2013).
Research conducted by Asvat and King (2014) tested the effectiveness of different types of smoking termination messages meant for racially-diverse American population through community-based awareness campaigns. The authors suggest that smoking is generally on the decrease in the United States.
They assert that a plea to persuade close friends to quit smoking is more successful in comparison to a plea to safeguard oneself from the destructive effects of tobacco. However, such pleas from a racially different friend are not well received and may not yield the desired results.
Population-based empirical evidence indicates that African Americans, Hispanic, uninsured, and young males rarely engage the services of quitting programs. However, when rehabilitation services are extended to these populations, quit attempts are more successful compared to the white counterparts.
The findings indicate that racial diversity, smoking history, and motivation to quit support African Americans when they receive smoke cessation rehabilitation and equality in receiving the services (Asvat and King, 2014).
A study conducted by Burgess and Sherman (2014) indicates that tobacco consumption and social disadvantage are progressively more intertwining as the difference in smoking percentages between the wealthy and the underprivileged individuals widens. The increases in tobacco prices heighten the economic baggage for marginalized groups. Study continuously indicates that they find it difficult to quit.
The result is augmented health, psychosomatic and economic challenges making the use of tobacco a substantial contributor to societal disparity and the subsequent repercussions.
The article concludes that mediations that encourage smoke quitting in underprivileged areas enhance the financial circumstances and livelihoods of the affected persons. Consequently, there is reduction in socio-economic discrepancies in transience.
Apparently, there exist a linear gradient between increased consumption of tobacco and injection drug prevalence with increase in area disadvantage. According to Cooper and Friedman (2007), when an area is disadvantaged, there are high chances that the population is bound to be impacted by the consequences of smoking tobacco and its products.
Locations of increased disadvantage create an apt atmosphere that encourages the continuous use of tobacco due to fewer smoking barriers due to the prevalence of injection drugs. Areas inhabited by American Africans, Hispanics and Asian Americans are among these locations (Cooper and Friedman, 2007).
These areas are prone to the existence of gangs that engage in excessive use of tobacco and other narcotics. These gangs rarely engage with the health system where they can receive rehabilitation services due to residential segregation.
Research conducted by Gritz and Danysh (2013) indicates that individuals living with HIV/AIDS have a significantly increased possibility of smoking in comparison to the general population. Considering their condition, they are more vulnerable to the unfavorable health implications of smoking.
The researchers found that cognitive and behavioral elements assist in altering beliefs and behaviors that act as hurdles to the attempt to quit the use of tobacco and consequently abstain. Motivation plays a fundamental role when helping people living with HIV/AIDS particularly during the treatment delivery stage.
The study indicates that African American and Hispanic persons smoke fewer cigarettes daily. However, they are nicotine dependent. The precise reason behind the tendency of using fewer cigarettes is not clear. The lack of financial endowment to buy tobacco products for day-to-day use is suspected to be a causative factor.
The authors indicate that there is dire need for studies to focus on how to sustain the impact of intervention, raising the general quit rates, and minimizing actual hurdles to termination related to psychiatric comorbidity (Gritz & Danysh, 2013).
A study conducted by Diana Burgess and Scott Sherman (2014) indicates that African Americas have lesser chances of quitting successfully compared to their white counterparts. The variation persists despite the former’s stronger urge, readiness, and motivation to quit. Additionally, they harbor the belief that they will quit successfully. Consequently, they attempt to quit more often than whites (Burgess & Sherman, 2014).
Empirical research indicates that an essential contributor to the differences in quitting is black Americans’ limited utilization of fact-based quitting rehabilitation. The African Americans are less likely to be screened for tobacco use. They rarely volunteer to receive cessation counseling or prescription for tobacco replacement rehabilitation.
The attitude of the African Americans limits the chances of caregivers intruding and offer rehabilitation services to smokers. The researchers assert that African Americans are more likely to benefit from tobacco quitting care model considering that they are less likely to have received earlier pharmacotherapy rehabilitation (Burgess & Sherman, 2014).
Conclusion
Smokers wishing to quit smoking encounter diverse challenges irrespective of whether or not they have other health conditions. However, smokers with other health challenges encounter increased chances of persistence use of tobacco. The same applies to individuals living in disadvantaged areas due to economic challenges.
It is hence imperative for clinical staff, counselors, and the community at large to understand the challenges individuals face when attempting to quit smoking.
Rehabilitation interventions hence require to be addressed to develop newer and effective methods that help in rehabilitating smokers and reduce the chances of lapses and relapses. There is need for further research to be conducted in future to establish the impact of social interventions that are effective for successful smoking cessation.
References
Asvat, Y., & King, A. (2014). Feasibility and effectiveness of a community-based smoking cessation intervention in a racially diverse, urban smoker cohort. American Journal of Public Health, 104(4), 620-627.
Burgess, D., & Sherman, S. (2014). Smoking cessation among African American and white smokers in the veterans affairs health care system. American Journal of Public Health, 104(4), 580-587.
Cooper, H., & Friedman, R. (2007). Residential segregation and injection drug use prevalence among black adults in US metropolitan areas. American Journal of Public Health, 97(2), 344-352.
Gritz, E., & Danysh, H. (2013). Long-term outcomes of a cell phone–delivered intervention for smokers living with HIV/AIDS. CID, 57(1), 608-615.
Larson, N., & Sydeman, S. (2013). Type D personality is not associated with coronary heart disease risk in a North American sample of retirement-aged adults. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 20(1), 277-285.