Public and User Involvement in Health Care - Essay Example

Why does educating people on the health risks of certain behaviours not necessarily help reduce them? Introduction Over the past two decades, people have increasingly become aware of the importance of good environment and healthy body. Today many people go to gyms and engage in sport activities to enhance their health. Despite the government’s huge spending on health campaigns, the number of people involved in unhealthy practices is still increasing. Although majority of the people are aware of the harmful health consequences of such behaviours, they are reluctant to give up those behaviours simply because they do not want to lose the instantaneous pleasures they obtain from those health behaviours. Some recently published official reports admit that the government could not effectively convince people to give up bad health behaviours like consumption of unhealthy food and alcoholic beverages. Evidently this health trend would negatively contribute to the overall wellbeing of the UK population, and the government would lose millions of pounds for nothing. This paper will describe why educating people on the health risks of certain behaviours may not necessarily help reduce such risks. To make the points clear, this paper will give particular attention to certain behaviours like alcohol addiction, smoking, substance abuse, fast food consumption, premarital sex, and sexual promiscuity. Awareness programmes on risky health behaviours The UK government spends a notable percent of its revenues on health awareness programmes with intent to eliminate future healthcare costs. The government tries to promote positive health messages mainly through television Ads because majority of the UK citizens spend a considerable amount of their time on TV programmes. The UK government jointly operates with many social interest organisations to control unhealthy behaviours like alcohol consumption and smoking in the society. As part of these health campaigns, health authorities and other volunteer groups organise road shows and other major promotional events to influence people. While analysing the UK government’s health spending over the last few decades, it seems that the government spent largely on the promotion of healthy food patterns. Since 1997, the UK government has been introducing a series of high-profile health campaigns to improve food pattern, “including Health Action Zones in poor food areas, the five-a-day fruit and vegetables campaign, the school fruit programme, and the change4life campaign on obesity” (Hickman, . 2010). However reports indicate that spending of millions of pounds of public money on these health campaigns has had little effect on the overall public health behaviours as people are eating as poorly as they were a decade ago. In a nationwide nutrition survey, it was found that the UK government has made little progress in reducing the diet related health issues in the country. Experts from the UK Food Standards Agency admit that it has nothing to do with health campaigns unless people are willing to change their food culture. Similarly, despite the UK government’s huge spending on AIDS prevention campaigns, the number of UK citizens engaging in premarital sex and sexual promiscuity is growing. Today premarital sex has become socially acceptable in the United Kingdom and nearly 25% of UK women aged under 16 admit that they have engaged in premarital sex. As discussed already, today health conscious people engage in gym and other physical activities to improve their health and to maintain physically fit body. Youngsters are mainly motivated to engage in gym because they are greatly interested in body building. However, many others abstain from gym and other physical activities as they do not have enough time due to strict work schedule and other life difficulties. Some others are lazy and they do not like to engage in physically demanding activities even though they have enough time. While analysing the overall health efforts taken by the government and other social institutions toward educating people on the health risks of certain behaviours, it seems that those efforts are yet to be effective. It is identified that such health campaigns are not able to influence people substantially as people are reluctant to give up some instantaneous pleasures they obtain from certain behaviours. Delivering health campaigns in a targeted way would be more effective to influence people. To illustrate, campaigns that target parents will educate parents and will help young family members to stop smoking habit. Alcohol consumption Admittedly, alcohol consumption has become an order of the day, and an inevitable part of celebrations like birthdays, marriage, and festivals. Easy availability and affordability are some major factors making alcohol a favourite drink of modern people (Alcohol concern, 2011). As compared to the alcohol prices in 1980, alcohol is 45% more affordable today. Statistical data indicate that the United Kingdom has experienced an increase in alcohol consumption over 9% during the last three decades (Alcohol Concern. Statistics on alcohol, n.d.). Alcohol consumption costs the country nearly £21bn per year in healthcare, crime and lost productivity costs. Studies estimated that approximately 2.6 million children in the country living with hazardously drinking parents whereas 705,000 living with dependent drinkers. It is horrific to see that 92,220 children and young people under the age of 18 were hospitalised in England during 2002-2009 for treating alcohol-related conditions (Ibid). Evidently visual media can have a greatly influence on the alcohol consumption rate because today movies, short films, and documentaries depict alcohol consumption as a status symbol. Hence teenagers and other young people get a negative message that alcohol consumption is an integral part of the modern social life. In addition, high profile celebrities like film actors/actresses, cricket players, or athletes appear in the advertisements of alcoholic beverages and this promotional trend really encourages people to consume liquor products. Today bottles of all types of alcoholic beverages bear the label ‘alcohol consumption is injurious to health’, and there are wide variety of alcohol awareness programmes being organised by governmental as well non-governmental agencies in their effort to enlighten people about the dreadful health risks of alcohol addiction. Despite all these initiatives, the rate of alcohol consumption in the society is on rise. Many people justify their habit of alcohol consumption pointing to the research findings that moderate drinking can offer certain health benefits. However, the idea of drinking in moderation will not actually work often because most of the people cannot limit to one or two drinks. Today majority of drinkers consume alcohol to deal with stressful life situations and to forget sorrows whereas many others consume liquor products to celebrate happy moments. According to a study conducted by Staddon (2012) on women’s alcohol use, factors such as poverty, loneliness, and abuse as the ‘second sex’ greatly influence women to use alcoholic beverages. The author adds that a notable percent of women use alcohol to fight depression pressures and to reduce stresses of life (p.202). It is dreadful to see that a large number of young individuals aged under 20 consume alcohol in large amounts just to obtain an illusionary pleasure for some hours. Although they are aware of the health risks of alcohol consumption, they just ignore those risk factors to make their parties enjoyable. The statutory warnings or prohibition of liquor products will not actually reduce the level of alcohol consumption in the country unless awareness programmes maintain a user-centric approach. It is clear that current alcohol awareness programmes only try to describe the health consequences of alcohol addiction other than using a user-centric approach to influence individual users. Healthcare concepts like ‘user-centric design’ and ‘co-designing for user experience’ can be effective to promote user involvement in eliminating unwanted health behaviours (Robert, 2007, p.10). To make it clear, alcohol awareness programmes must be capable of influencing user experience, which is the prime factor determining the alcoholic behaviour of an individual. Smoking/substance abuse Despite a sequence of awareness programmes on the health risks of cigarette smoking, many countries across the globe still struggle to curb the smoking rate. While analysing the smoking statistics in the Great Britain, the highest smoking rate among men (82%) was recorded in 1948 whereas the rate was 41% among women in the same year. By the year of 1974, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among men was dropped to 51% while the prevalence among the women remained fairly constant (smoking statistics). The prevalence of smoking among adults has been decreasing since the risk factors of smoking were first included in the annual lifestyle survey. The biggest drop was observed between 1974 and 1994. The smoking rate among adults continued to decline since 1994 but at a slower rate. However, the rate has been remaining almost unchanged since 2007. Statistical data also indicate that there has been a steady rise in the number of people using hand-rolled tobacco since 1990 (smoking statistics, n.d.). It is dreadful to see that the number of male smokers increased from 18% in 1990 to 40% in 2011 whereas the number of female smokers rose from 2% in 1990 to 26% in 2011 (Ibid). The statistical data discussed above make it clear that both governmental and non-governmental efforts to educate people on the health risks of smoking are not really effective to reduce the this behaviour. There are many reasons for the failure of smoking awareness programmes. Although many existing smokers have abandoned their smoking habit over the years, the number of new smokers is notably increasing today. A substantial population growth is a major reason increasing the number of cigarette smokers worldwide. According to the study titled Smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption in 187 countries, 1980-2012, a significant population growth over the years 1980-2012 resulted in an increase in the number of male daily smokers by 41% and an increase for females by 7% (as cited in Stewart, 2014). Referring to statistical data, Stewart states that the number of cigarette smokers around the globe has increased to over 6 trillion and on an average smokers consumed over 20 cigarettes per day in 2012. Media, particularly cinemas, play a significant role in increasing the number of smokers because youngsters are excited to imitate their favourite actors and actresses. Today most of the movies feature cigarette smoking as a normal activity of the daily life and smoking is highlighted as a way to negotiate stressful life situations. In addition, substance abuse is depicted as a new trend among youngsters who keep strong heroic notions and need to enjoy the happiness of the modern life. Although movies display the statutory warning against smoking/substance abuse in most of the countries, the effect of visuals shown in the movie is strong enough to influence the viewers to ignore the warning. The strong influence of friendship is also a major reason for many students/young people to begin the habit of smoking/substance abuse. Surveys indicate that many of the adolescent smokers consumed their first cigarette when they are with their friends. Sexual promiscuity and premarital sex As Diomond (2011) points out, today due to weak family relationships people are increasingly exposed to premarital sex, sexual promiscuity, and sexual molestations. The medical science has clearly proved that out-of marriage sex is the main reason leading to AIDS and other sexually transmitting diseases. Both governmental and non-governmental agencies take immense efforts to enlighten people about the dreadfulness and chronic nature of sexually transmitting diseases like AIDS. There are many government sponsored advertisements featuring the dangers of out-of marriage sex and AIDS. Despite all these efforts, still the number of young people in premarital sex and sexual promiscuity has noticeably increased. Visual media and the internet play an inevitable role in moulding people’s sexual notions. Today most of the films and television programmes spread a negative message on sexual life and entertain the notions like teen sex, premarital sex, and out-of marriage sex. The underlying concept behind such a trend is that people always appreciate changes in sexual ideologies, particularly if the changes involve some wild notions. This is the reason why many advertisements and awareness programmes give focus to the sexual perspectives of modern people. Similarly, internet significantly contributes to sexual molestations and other immoral sexual activities. Internet opens doors to a world of broad range of information, communication, and entertainment. At the same time, it increases people’s exposure to violence, fraud, and sex trafficking. The emergence of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and other instant messaging applications provide modern people with an opportunity to communicate with an unknown person from another part of the world. The secrecy and convenience provided by internet chat rooms encourage people to engage in sex chats, which often end up in direct physical relations. Simply, internet improves people’s exposure to the opposite sex and weakens the bond of family relations. Although most of the modern people are aware of the dreadfulness of sexually transmitting chronic diseases like AIDS, they simply ignore those risk factors to enjoy short term pleasure. Although governments and social workers across the globe fight hard to eliminate the evils of premarital sex and sexual promiscuity from the society, prostitution is still legal in almost all countries. The level of premarital sex cannot be reduced notably unless governments make prostitution illegal by statute. There are many factors leading to sexual promiscuity. Mainly sexual dissatisfaction may persuade people to search for a new sex partner who is able to make the sex life more enjoyable. In addition, loneliness or prolonged absence of partner may often lead married people to out-of marriage sex to satisfy their unmet sex needs. Surveys indicate that people who do not obtain adequate love and care from their sex partners are likely to be sexually promiscuous. Young individuals often maintain wrong notions about sexuality and this situation is threatening the sexual morality of the whole society (Barnes & Cotterell, 2012, p.152). In short, educating people on the health risks of sexual promiscuity or premarital sex may not be necessarily helpful to manage such behaviours unless there is a strong bond of family relations. Consumption of fast foods Today’s people live in a busy world and they cannot keep pace with the modern life unless they thoughtfully manage their precious time. As a result, people hardly get enough time to prepare homely food, and therefore most of the working people depend on fast foods. However, it is clear that fast foods contain huge amounts of fat and sugar, which are the major contributory factors to lifestyle diseases like obesity, blood pressure, heart stroke, and diabetes. Today, by statute, packed food companies are required to display fat content of the food on the label. In addition, public health agencies and other non-government health institutions have launched a series of health campaigns to educate people on the health risks of modern food culture. Despite such efforts, fast foods still remain to be the first choice of many people because they just need to save their time. Another reason for the increased consumption of fast food items is that they are easily available, and inexpensive as compared to other alternatives. The new generation is also very interested in fast foods simply because they are tastier than homely foods. For the same reason, people consume more calories of food than they actually need. In addition, people order fast foods for birthday parties and other similar celebrations considering the great convenience of getting the required quantity of food items as and when needed. Similarly, misleading advertisements play a significant role in increasing the consumption of fast foods. Fast food companies argue that their food items are fat/sugar free and they show such advertisements to support their claims. Many people believe that those claims are true and hence they continue to consume such food items. Today television Ads and online promotion can greatly influence consumer behaviour because most of the modern consumers pay attention to advertisements before they actually purchase a product/service. The fast food culture together with a sedentary lifestyle can be extremely harmful to people because such living style may result in the deposition of fat on the heart walls and which in turn can lead to dreadful cardiovascular diseases. Although modern people are really concerned about their health and safety, working people have few choices other than fast food and hence they are compelled to consume these unhealthy food items. Furthermore, fast foods have become a trend of the modern life due to the influence of visual media and internet. Some other people just ignore the serious health consequences of fast foods because these food items do not cause any instantaneous health effects. In fact, people actually realise the dreadful impacts of fast foods only when they are victimised. Findings While analysing the above discussed adverse health behaviours like alcohol addiction, substance abuse, smoking, fast food consumption, and sexual promiscuity, it is obvious that these behaviours have drastic effects on the health in the long term. Although a series of health campaigns have been organised to enlighten people about the health risks of these behaviours, and most of the people are aware of the risks identified, still many people are hesitant to abandon such behaviours and many others newly develop those habits. The primary reason for this situation is that people simply ignore the health warnings to enjoy an instantaneous/short term pleasure or to save considerable amount of their time and money. Another major finding is that visual media, particularly television, play an inevitable role in promoting these bad health behaviours in the society. Today most of the films feature alcohol consumption and smoking as a part of the upper class social life and consequently people tend to follow these habits so as to become a member of the upper class society. In addition, many of the today’s advertisements mislead people through promoting bad health behaviours like consumption of fast food and alcoholic beverages. Since those advertisements feature celebrities using such products, young people are more likely to be attracted toward them. Finally, internet also plays its part in spreading the messages of premarital sex and/or sexual promiscuity. Internet is a safe place for people to find outside sex partners and to satisfy their immoral sexual needs. Despite the infinite scope of internet technologies, they can have serious negative consequences too on the modern society (Greenhalgh, et al., 2011, p.118). Conclusions From the above discussion, is clear that educating people on the health risks of certain behaviours like alcohol addiction, smoking, fast food consumption, premarital sex, and sexual promiscuity would not necessarily help reduce them. Spending of even billions of pounds would not be helpful to manage these health behaviours effectively unless people really recognise the long term health consequences of such behaviours. It seems that many misleading advertisements contribute to the spread of bad health behaviours in the society, and the situation gets worse when high-profile celebrities are willing to play a major role in those Ads. In addition, visual media and the widespread of internet play an inevitable role in influencing people to show unwanted health behaviours. Finally, the weak family relations persuade people to depend more on alcohol and other intoxicative substances and outside marriage relationships. 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