The Habit of Women Smoking in the Society: Trends of Smoking and Diseases Related to Smoking - Literature review Example

 INTRODUCTION Smoking is the inhalation of the smoke of burning tobacco encased in cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. It has become more of a social habit; a hobby to some, not men only but also women and the smoking habit has become more, and more associated with women, mostly young women. There two kinds of smokers, the active smokers’ i.e. those who directly inhale the smoke of the burning tobacco encased in cigarettes pipes and cigars. Passive smokers are those people who indirectly inhale the smoke of the burning tobacco encased in cigarettes by being near the person who is actively smoking. This equally smoking the difference is that you are not doing it directly. AIM OF THE STUDY The aim of the study was to look at sociological, psychological, biological, and nutritional effects of smoking in women in relation to the prevailing smoking habit in young women. METHODOLOGY As we have seen in the introduction, many women have smoked whether directly or indirectly. All the same, it is important to look into the researches, surveys, legislation and education and support as methods used to understanding the adoption of smoking in young men in the contemporary United Kingdom. Many countries lack comprehensive and reliable data about women and smoking, such patterns and trends of smoking and diseases related to smoking. Such information is crucial for the effective development, implementation and evaluation of programs. Countries also need to know the reasons why women smoke and quitting in particular, know the reasons why women smoke, the factors that encourage them to smoke (Meinck, & Conrad, 2009, P.121). The big question is, is it peer pressure or a lifestyle or is just fashionable for young women to smoke. There is also need for further research to explore more fully the role of that smoking playing women’s daily lives. How health promotion can help women or rather develop alternatives ways of dealing with the factors that keep the smoking, factor in their lives yet they know it dangerous (Burbank, 2007, p. 404). Research also shows that sociologically women smoke to release tension and stress. When smoking becomes a daily practice, then it becomes habitual thing in their lives and this automatically leads to addiction. When the whole body depends on smoking then it’s no longer sociological or habitual but psychological, medical doctors further refer the habit of depending on smoking to psychological addiction and its effects are directly shown through behavioral changes to the normal character of the woman (Howe, 2014, P. 16). Several behaviors’ that exert a strong influence on health due to the use of tobacco, not only lead to increased risks on the health of the young woman but also the mortality of the woman. The conducted Surveys also show that women began to smoke in the 1920s but in small numbers. These women were social misfit of the time. Prostitutes and way ward women were the only ones who smoke at his time and they did it bars and not in public because it was simply not right for women to smoke (Coylle, 2009, p. 60). After the Second World War, seems the war for women smokers was present and won for the numbers increased. Women in the Great Britain had the highest rates office for national statistics. This is according to a general survey over view a report in 2010. The smoking rates between the ages of 20-24 years age group since 1986 were 29%. In 2010 age group 25-30 it was25% 40% of women in routine and a manual occupations in Britain regularly start smoking by the age of 16compared to 33% of men and 28% of women in managerial professional occupation smoke according to the results of 2005 General Household Survey. Does this mean women who are influential in the society are the only ones smoking? One can simply conclude that the influential women who smoke in the public for example Oprah Winfrey. This is because the little girls who consider them their role models end up smoking to be like them (Coriell & Adler. 2006, P. 54). In the UK women like Geri Halliwell smokes cigar publicly in London Park since Jan 19 2009. They are bad role models and they lack morals. This is because before the 21st century it was a taboo or rather unethical for women to smoke in public. So for those who smoked did it secretly? In addition, to prevent bad breath they used chewing gums, brushing their teeth regularly, dental flossing, drinking lots of water and visiting the dentist occasionally. This is evident in the report by Rosenberg on bad breath research (Robert, 2007, P. 34). There is a popular saying that like mother like daughter is this to say they that this young women were copying the habit of smoking from their own mothers? A question to ponder on carefully and with concern as it is important. This illustration by the survey totally convinces that women start smoking at the stage of adolescents. This is the age when a girl is sweet sixteen and wants to try out everything and anything including smoking of tobacco among other things. Smoking in young women is something to be worried about because surveys show that women who smoke started as young teen-age girl’s smokers. Since the habit is hard to stop, they carry it on to their adulthood and the saddest thing is that some smoke even when pregnant. The statistical evidence show that 1 out of 5 women smoke during pregnancy, this according to CBS News this despite the dangers involve with smoking while pregnant to the unborn child. The study that conducted by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHASA) showed that 21.8% of white women aged between 15 to 44 admitted that they smoked while pregnant. Black and Hispanic women reported lower rates of 3.1% (Fortune Magazine, 2005, P. 111). There has been a great concern on the smoking habit in young women even the general assembly. The general assembly of the United States of America formulated a legislative act named the cigarette warning Act. Section 2, the general assembly finds that there is need for public information about the risk of smoking to unborn children, this was a concern to the increasing numbers of young women who were smoking and yet they are expectant. The United States surgeon has recommended abstinence of smoking during pregnancy. This is because it has adverse effects to the unborn innocent child. Research shows that women who smoked during their pregnancy give birth to unhealthy children. Smoking while pregnant can lead to complications, premature birth, low birth weight infants, still birth, and sudden infant death according to centers for disease control and prevention. Smoking can also cause low oxygen supply to the fetus via the placenta. However, if a woman stops smoking during pregnancy there will be more supply of oxygen to fetus (Goering, 2005, P. 77). The effects of smoking during pregnancy are adverse yet they are preventable. The general assembly find that it is in the public interest to provide warning to places where cigarette smoking during smoking. The health promotion board launched an education and support program to increasing trend of smoking among young women aged between 18-29 years. The health promotion board launched a program dubbed fresh air for women (Sullivan, 2010, P. 89). This ongoing program provided relevant information and social support network to the young women who smoked to help them quit smoking. Adopting an integrated approach, this program incorporates making public relation and partnership to reach the young women with educational, motivational and empowerment messages (Goering, 2005, P. 67). The mechanisms by which smoking decreases the body weight are complex and incompletely understood. Most of the effects of cigarette smoking on the body are mediated by nicotine, although cigarette may also serve as behavioral alternative to eating, resulting in decreased food intake. The balance of caloric intake and daily energy expenditure also determines body weight. Nicotine reduces body weight by resting metabolic rate while blunting the expected increase in food intake in increase to metabolic rate (Chopra, 2007, p. 49). Like many anti-obesity drugs, nicotine is a sympathomimetic agent. These drugs increase energy expenditure via action on peripheral tissues and through regulation of metabolism in the brain. Smokers generally weigh 4-5kg less than non-smokers do. When smokers quit smoking, they gain 4.5kg within 6-12 months. However, some increase so much weight after quitting smoking. 13 percentage increase more than they weighed causing obesity. This is per the medical report by Adrian Mc Govern and NL Bnowitz (Kahane, 2009, P. 78). Smokers are skinnier because nicotine has works in the brain to suppress hunger and therefore reducing the appetite of an individual. RESULTS The medical news today reported on 10th of February 2014 written by Honor Whiteman. The news suggested that young women who smoked developed an estrogen that is positive cancer receptive. This therefore suggests that smoking in young women increased the chances of breast cancer, appendix cancer and respiratory cancer (Sullivan, 2010, P. 99). The research team, led by D. Christopher Li of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle WA, says there is quite a bit of research that has associated smoking among women with the risks of breast cancer (Sullivan, 2010, P. 89). The result of the study revealed that women who have ever smoked (more than 1000 cigarette in their lifetime) had 30% increased risk of breast cancer overall, compared with those who have never smoked in their lifetime. However, the research found out those young women who were current or recent smokers, who had been smoking one pack of cigarette a day for at least a decade , were 60% more likely to develop estrogen receptor-positive that leads to breast cancer. This is compared to those women who had smoked for few years and those who had a history of smoking fewer packs (Sullivan, 2010, P. 89). There are a number of factors influencing young women to start smoking, mostly adolescent girls. These include peer smoking, parent smoking, self-concept, parent connectedness. Is according to the report by Mary Ann Faucher in the year 2003.she says that peer smoking seems to be more influencing in smoking initiation. Susceptibility to peer pressure does not seem to be influenced by race and gender (Meinck. & Conrad. 2009, P. 122). Peer pressure and offers to smoke have been reported as reasons to initiate smoking, more often by females 15% than males 9%. In addition, risk for lifelong continuation of smoking in females may be greater than in males. Parents who smoke are known to influence their children’s smoking behavior in a study of 20 families in which both parents smoke, 20.7% of girls were smokers, compared to 7.6% of girls from families who do not smoke (Sullivan, 2010, P. 88). Smoking cigars’ also was seen to cause low appetite leading to ulcers and Parental smoking seemed to be more influential to female or rather teenage adolescent girls than to men. The results also indicate that efforts to reduce smoking in women before pregnancy have not been effective enough. However, efforts targeting pregnant women have been met with lots of success as the rates of those women who smoke during pregnancy have declined during pregnancy and after delivery. CONCLUSION Understanding the adoption of smoking among the young within the contemporary UK is not such an easy thing. The hazards of smoking in young women are so adverse. Yet statistical reports show that as days pass by more and more women continue to smoke. This has increased more and more health complications. Therefore campaigns to stop the habit of smoking from becoming a social habit because it is harmful to the lives of the smokers and the passive smokers and to the environment at large. It is also right to conclude that even though the habit of women smoking in the society has become like a norm, still not many people accept it. 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