Insights that Help Nurses Understand Lifestyles Surrounding Smoking Tobacco - Essay Example

?Psychological and Sociological Insights that Help Nurses Understand Lifestyles Surrounding Smoking Tobacco Introduction Understanding the health lifestyles connected to tobacco smoking in patients, particularly the reasons why individuals choose to continue smoking even when fully aware of the negative health effects is an important factor for nursing. Understanding the drivers behind the way individuals act can help in aiding patients, whether it is in helping them quit smoking, in giving advice or other applications. Psychological and sociological study can provide important insights into these drivers. Psychology is the study of behaviour through emotions and processes, with strong focus being put on the measurement and observance of behaviour . Psychology focuses on understanding the reasons that people (or other species) behave in particular ways. Some examples of psychological drivers are: personality, conformity to the environment around them, stress and coping mechanisms, values and influence of other members of society such as through peer pressure . In terms of health, psychology can be used in research to provide public health in a beneficial manner . This essay will focus on a few specific psychological drivers: influence of society, the sense of self worth, health locus of control theory and the role of nutrition and health. Sociology in contrast is the study of the social factors that surround individuals and how they affect every aspect of their life, such as decision making, health, illness and health care. Sociologists study how social forces promote some factors in individual’s lives while repressing others, as well as the drivers behind this. Some examples of sociological drivers include: financial status, region that the individual lives in, environmental factors such as pollution and socioeconomic factors such as class . This essay will focus on several sociological drivers and how these affect individual’s decisions to smoke. These are socioeconomic factors, cultural factors and differences between countries. Finally, this essay will consider how being aware of the different psychological and sociological factors that drive an individual’s decision to smoke can help nurses in working with patients. Nurses spend most of their time interacting with people, and a big part of their role is to promote general well-being and health. Understanding why people make the decisions they do, and the role that different factors play in their decision making process plays a large part in the ability to understand and empathise with patients . This, in turn, makes the role of nurses in promoting health and in dealing with patients in general easier. Psychological Drivers One key psychological driver of behaviour is the influence of society. Smoking has always been very heavily driven by society, by trends and by advertising, particularly in movies. The prevalence of smoking as a form of recreation, of stress relief and for socialisation has been a large driver for smoking in many individuals, as well as peer pressure towards smoking particularly in adolescents. Throughout much of the early 20th century there was strong social pressure for men to begin smoking, with it considered to be a male orientated activity. In this time period few women smoked, as it was considered to be unseemly, and there was strong social disapproval. Towards the latter half of the 20th century smoking in women became more accepted, and the differences in smoking between genders decreased substantially, at least in developed countries. However, in developed countries there is still a strong difference in gender based mortality as a consequence of smoking, as death from smoking is generally related to many years of accumulated toxins . An important aspect of psychology is the way an individual views themselves. People hold a general representation of themselves mentally, which can encompass appearance, emotions, behaviour, self-worth as well as many more aspects. This representation of self often does not match the other people’s representation of the same person, in part because everyone views people differently. The sense of self and self-worth that a person holds can often be damaged in some manner by things such as illness, abuse, depression or disease. The sense of self worth that an individual holds can have a strong effect on the decisions they make in regards to their own health . If an individual has low self-worth then they may choose to smoke as they do not care about the effect that it could have on their health, they do not value their own health enough for that to matter. Instead decisions on smoking become based only on the positive aspects to smoking, such as reducing stress, and not the negative health effects. The health locus of control (HLOC) is a psychological theory that attempts to explain why individuals make the health decisions that they do . One model of this is random health locus of control. Individuals that exhibit this locus belief that their own behaviour has no influence on their health, and as a consequence changing their behaviour will have no effect on their health. Individuals exhibiting this locus may choose to smoke for stress relief, socialisation or other purposes and consider this to have no effect on their health, either in the short or in the long term . The opinion or personal belief of the individual in regards to their health is another key driver of decision making. One way that this can be expressed is through nutrition and diet. There are a large number of ways in which nutrition can affect overall health. The diet consists of the foods which an individual normally eats, and a healthy diet, one that is balanced in nutrients and energy intake leads to a healthy immune system, one that is capable of fighting off infections and diseases . This has an important role in the choice of individuals to smoke. Firstly individuals that are aware or concerned about their health are generally aware of the negative health consequences that co-occur with smoking, and as a consequence are less likely to smoke. The current health status of individuals may also play a role in the decisions concerning whether to smoke. If an individual is already in poor health, then there can be a tendency to feel that smoking cannot do any more harm. Conversely, individuals with good health may sometimes smoke, as they consider that their health is good in other aspects, so smoking will not cause much harm. This manner of thinking may be connected to the concept (which is untrue) that the negative effects of smoking can be offset by other positive health care decisions. Likewise the individual may feel that because bad health effects haven’t happened to them yet, they will not happen . Sociological Drivers Socioeconomic factors are important drivers of an individual’s decisions. One of these is social class. Social class has been linked to a large number of differences in health, including the susceptibility to disease and illness . In addition they have higher rates of mortality, and lower average life expectancies. There are a wide range of explanations available for this including poorer living conditions, low income, poor nutrition, low access to medical care and a low level of information about health . People of higher social class tend to smoke less, perhaps because they have more of an interest and an ability to keep their health good and their immune systems healthy. Also, members of higher social classes tend to seek health help earlier if they smoke, and this combined with a healthier immune system means that they are less likely to become sick . Cultural factors play an important role in the decisions people make. An important aspect of this is the opinions and beliefs surrounding the location that people are based. For example, smoking has become less acceptable in the UK, with it generally being frowned upon nowadays, where once it was popular. While there have been many legal changes to reduce the availability of smoking products to adolescents, the perception of smoking being taboo and an adult behaviour has resulted in a culture of adolescents and young adults that smoke, more so than their adult counterparts. Around half of young smokers predicted they would give up at some point in the future. Most of the smokers thought that the health leaflets for stopping smoking or nicotine patches/gum would not help . The desirability of smoking and the cultural norm differs substantially from one country to the next. In many developing countries the rise of smoking prevalence very rapidly, with seven million deaths annually predicted in the developing world by 2030. While many of the smokers wish to quit, they face difficulties doing so because of the severity of the addiction. While there are many methods available in the developed world for managing smoking addictions, it is difficult to determine how these will be able to be applied to the developing world . Part of this increase is due to the rise in incomes as the country develops, resulting in more money that is able to be spent on luxury items such as tobacco . Conclusion Both physiology and sociology provide important insights into why patients make the health care decisions they do. This essay reviewed just a few of the many different physiological and sociological aspects that can determine why individuals choose to continue smoking when they are aware of the short and long term negative health problems that the habit brings. From a nursing perspective, understanding these drivers is important as it helps them to relate to their patients, to better encourage them towards good health practices, and help them in quitting where they desire it. Bibliography ABDULLAH, A. & HUSTEN, C. 2004. Promotion of smoking cessation in developing countries: a framework for urgent public health interventions. Thorax, 59, 623. BARKER, H. M. 2002. Nutrition and dietetics for health care, Elsevier Health Sciences. CLARKE, A. 2010. The sociology of healthcare, Longman. EYSENCK, M. W. 2004. Psychology: An International Perspective, New York, Psychology Press. 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