Public Health Education: Anti-smoking Project Research Paper

The Initiative

Various workshops were held to promote anti-smoking in the workplaces and other places. They provided grounds for public health officials to engage with the population at risk of smoking. They were conducted throughout the weekdays and over the weekends. They could be carried out in schools, churches, and hospitals, among other places. The project involved a mix of media institution where the campaign would be passed, an institution of learning and correction, among others. Speakers would be called to address specific burning topics in these workshops. Through the media, participation in the workshops was really high as participants were not only given various skills, but also connections with the local media contacts. The feedback was positive, especially through correspondence. The project involved a mix of media institutions where the campaign would be passed, institutions of learning and correction among others. Speakers would be called to talk about specific burning topics in these workshops.

Objectives

The workshop initiative aimed to achieve the following objectives:

1. To assess the issues related to smoking and tobacco use.
2. To offer a platform upon which to increase the advocacy on anti-smoking.
3. To offer local data on smoking dangers.
4. To connect the vulnerable groups to health workers and/or departments.
5. To reduce the number of young smokers.
6. To offer emotional and clinical support to persons who chose to quit smoking.
7. To enhance the health advantages of clean air spaces.

Why the initiative was started

There were concerns that public health problems related to smoking were on the increase. For example, more people were suffering from cancer of the lungs, which was attributed to smoking. Also, there were issues raised over contamination of the air with the smoke from cigarettes in several places. Therefore, these reasons made public health officials and other agencies to launch workshops that could persuade smokers to quit smoking (Brown, 2010; Eissenberg et al., 2008; Lantz et al., 2000; Pérez-Stable et al., 2001; Schnoll et al., 2005).

The target

The initiative focused on the young people, especially students, school-leavers and young employees. The target population was based on the analysis of data that showed that the number of young smokers was on the increase. Also, the target was chosen because most of the young smokers could be influenced through anti-smoking education to quit smoking. In addition, it was thought that if young people could be helped to stop smoking, then the future could have adults characterized by a small number of smokers. Thus, the future would have a healthier population (Eissenberg et al., 2008; Lantz et al., 2000; McVey & Stapleton, 2000).

Strategies and their strengths

Strategies are specific interventions that are used to implement initiatives. The workshop initiative adopted the following strategies to help young people to stop smoking in different settings:

• Support of organizational smoke-free settings. The workplaces were encouraged to support advocacy for smoking-free settings. That way, whoever was employed found that such a workplace had rules already set and was not likely to turn against it. The advantage of this strategy was that organizations were positive about the idea of enforcing rules that could deter young people from smoking.
• Diversifying the activities for young people. This was aimed to engage the young people with activities that could keep them busy and make them forget about smoking. Therefore, looking for a preventive strategy was the way to go. The strength of this strategy was that it was adopted by many young people, especially those who liked to engage in sporting activities.
• Great use of visual impact. This was probably the most effective strategy in that it displayed images showing the effects of smoking and how far it can affect the health of the smoker. The strength of the strategy was that it could spark discussions among smokers, and they were likely to conceptualize the effects of smoking on their bodies.
• Using champions and role models. Young people were encouraged at the workplaces and local community to become champions of anti-smoking. Therefore, the strategy was advantageous because young people were psyched to become their own heroes marked by a transformed culture of smoking.
• Minimizing access to cigarette or tobacco stores. Through this approach, young people were discouraged from visiting stores specializing in the sale of cigarettes. The strength of this strategy was that the young people were made to believe that distancing themselves from cigarette-selling shops could make them quit smoking.

Limitations

The above strategies were not all achieved due to lack of coordination, support services, ultimate pressures due to time, resources or human capacity, inadequate evaluations, and lack of advocacy, among others. Evaluation of this kind of initiative is usually difficult. This is because of insufficient funding available as well as the skill-sets. Therefore, the expectations of the funding organizations and the deliverables expected did not match.

Initiative evaluation

Evaluation of a project aims to assess the level of success. Several approaches were utilized to determine the project outcomes. First, surveys were done to establish the number of young people who were purchasing cigarettes from shops. A comparison could be made to the number recorded before the launch of the initiative. Second, clinical data regarding health complications resulting from smoking were analyzed to determine whether or not young smokers were being recruited into the practice. Third, school managers were requested to avail data about students caught engaging in smoking while in school. The approaches aimed to compare baseline data to the data collected after the implementation of the project. If the baseline data were more than the data recorded after the program execution, then it could be established that the initiative was successful. However, if it could be found that the data were not suggesting a reduction in the number of young smokers, then the strategies could be reformulated.

Conclusion

Tobacco smoking is still a major public health problem across the world. Most of the strategies that have been adopted to reduce the impact of smoking have not been successful due to several reasons. The initiative described in this paper targeted the youth, and it aimed at reducing the number of persons engaging in tobacco smoking. It was implemented in places characterized by young people, for example, schools. The following strategies were used: Support of organizational smoke-free settings, diversifying the activities for young people, great use of visual impact, using champions and role models, and minimizing access to cigarette or tobacco stores. Evaluation of the initiative showed that it was successful to some extent. However, more actions were required to significantly reduce the impact of tobacco smoking among young people.

References

Brown, D. W. (2010). Smoking prevalence among US veterans. Journal of general internal medicine, 25(2), 147-149.

Eissenberg, T., Ward, K. D., Smith-Simone, S., & Maziak, W. (2008). Waterpipe tobacco smoking on a US College campus: prevalence and correlates. Journal of Adolescent Health, 42(5), 526-529.

Lantz, P. M., Jacobson, P. D., Warner, K. E., Wasserman, J., Pollack, H. A., Berson, J., & Ahlstrom, A. (2000). Investing in youth tobacco control: a review of smoking prevention and control strategies. Tobacco control, 9(1), 47-63.

McVey, D., & Stapleton, J. (2000). Can anti-smoking television advertising affect smoking behaviour? Controlled trial of the Health Education Authority for England’s anti-smoking TV campaign. Tobacco Control, 9(3), 273-282.

Pérez-Stable, E. J., Ramirez, A., Villareal, R., Talavera, G. A., Trapido, E., Suarez, L., … & McAlister, A. (2001). Cigarette smoking behavior among US Latino men and women from different countries of origin. American Journal of Public Health, 91(9), 1424-1430.

Schnoll, R. A., Rothman, R. L., Wielt, D. B., Pedri, H., Wang, H., Babb, J.,… & Lerman, C. (2005). A randomized pilot study of cognitive-behavioral therapy versus basic health education for smoking cessation among cancer patients. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 30(1), 1-11.

Abstract

Tobacco remains the main cause of preventable death among populations in the U.S. The socioeconomic status of smoker is lower compared to a non-smoker. Although various approaches have been implemented by public health agencies across the world, smoking remains a public health concern. This paper describes a health education initiative that is common in the community by identifying its objectives, the reason why it was started and the target group. Also, the paper analyzes the strategies used in the implementation of the initiative and how the project was evaluated. In addition, this paper offers the limitations of the initiative toward reducing the impact of smoking.