PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS IN THE PROMOTION OF HEALTH AND WELL BEING

Psychological Factors in the Promotion of Health and Well Being

Psychological Factors in the Promotion of Health and Well Being

Introduction

As more of us become aware of the dangers of smoking, the smoking rate in the UK has dropped from about 50 percent of the population in the decade from 1950 to 25 percent in 2003. Despite this drop in the number of smokers, it is estimated that cigarettes were responsible for over 1.2 million deaths in 2000 in the European Region of the World Health Organization. In the UK, smoking accounts for about one in five deaths.

Diseases caused by smoking go beyond the well-informed links with cancer, heart disease and respiratory diseases. Smoking can cause impotence, ulcers and fertility problems and is not just harm smokers. Passive smoking causes lung cancer and is associated with sudden death, glue ear and asthma in children. However, the decrease in consumption of snuff in the population has stabilized and the percentage of people smoking in the last 10 years seems to have remained at around 25 percent.

The good news is that about 70 percent of smokers say they want to quit. However, the success rates of attempts to quit smoking are 10 to 20 percent. This article discusses some of the psychological and social barriers that smokers face.

Responsiveness to the promotion of smoking is recognized as associated with movement along the smoking uptake continuum among adolescents. Earlier studies by researchers in Australia found higher rates of smoking initiation among young people indicated that the approval or the appeal of cigarette advertising earlier.1 1 to 2 years, 2 Later, a Scottish study showed that monitoring adolescents whose intentions to smoke when older became more positive between the two interviews had been more aware of cigarette advertising at the time of the first interview in relation to those whose intentions to smoke were negative in both interviews.3 More Recently, American researchers have renewed interest in this relationship. For example, Pierce and colleagues4 reported that a third of all experimentation in California between 1993 and 1996 can be attributed to snuff promotion activities. Biener and Siegel also found that young non-smokers and experimenters who first had an element of promotion of snuff and the name of a brand whose advertising attracted their attention at baseline were more than twice as likely to become established smokers 4 years later compared with those not involved with the promotion snuff. Therefore, longitudinal studies indicate that snuff promotions are causally involved in the decisions of adolescents to start smoking and progression to higher levels of smoking.

Psychological Factors of Health and Healthcare

Social Influences

Peer pressure can be difficult for anyone to resist, no matter what your age. Smoking may play an important role in friendship, while offering a cigarette or asking for a light can be icebreakers to start a conversation. It can create a link between smoking, for example, the huddled groups smoking outside ...