Tobacco Use and Substance Abuse, Article Review Example

Tobacco use is a serious health issue in the United States. Every year, thousands of Americans suffer the consequences of tobacco addiction and its negative effects on public health. Since the middle of the 20th century, the public knowledge of tobacco use and its health effects has significantly increased. The public awareness about the role of tobacco use in the development of numerous health complications has also grown. The current state of literature provides an insight into the dimensions of the tobacco use problems and highlights the factors that contribute to tobacco use in the United States.

Tobacco Use, CDC, and Dimensions of the Problem

That tobacco use is a popular topic in the scientific literature cannot be denied. The significance of the issue emphasizes the need to explore the factors of tobacco use in detail.The need to develop behavioral approaches to meet the public health objectives for tobacco use is more than urgent. Reduction in tobacco use by adults and adolescents is one of the primary Healthy People 2010 objectives (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC), 2000). For this reason, scientists and medical practitioners actively engage in researching the factors, consequences and preventive mechanisms against tobacco use in the U.S.

Statistically, tobacco use results in more than 430,000 deaths annually among adults in the United States (CDC, 2000). Tobacco use is responsible for the loss of five million years of potential life (CDC, 2000). Unless the United States reduces the scope of the tobacco use problem, 5 million adolescents will remain at risk of dying prematurely as a result of smoking (CDC, 2000). Every year, the American government spends not less than $50 billion to treat smokers (CDC, 2000). Maternal tobacco use is associated with a variety of birth defects and leads to mental retardation in the newborns (CDC, 2000). Secondhand smoke exposure is a serious health issue, too. Asthma and respiratory infections are the direct products of secondhand smoke exposure in infants and adults. Combating the tobacco use issue and meeting the Healthy People 2010 objectivesis impossible without having a better understanding of the factors that contribute to tobacco use. Contemporary scholarly literature provides a wealth of information about the drivers and causes of increased tobacco use in the U.S.

Tobacco Use: Contributing Factors

Demographic and socioeconomic factors are fairly regarded as the most significant contributors to tobacco use in different population groups. Race, age, and gender predetermine the development of the tobacco smoking patterns. Low income and the lack of education add complexity to the situation. Larson et al (2009) wrote that “low income, less educated, and underserved racial minorities bear a substantial burden of tobacco related morbidity and mortality” (p.311). According to Larson et al (2009), smoking had historically been more prevalent among African Americans than their white counterparts; moreover, African Americans always displayedincreased use of menthol cigarettes, which, consequentially, led to higher rates of smoking-related morbidity. However, racial background alone cannot be responsible for elevated tobacco use in the American population – age and gender matter a lot in how individuals choose to behave in regard to their smoking habits. In terms of age, adolescents display higher rates of tobacco addiction than adults (CDC, 2000). In their turn, women more than men find it difficult to quit tobacco use and continue smoking due to their weight concerns – put simply, smoking women are increasingly concerned about weight gains that usually follow the moment they quit smoking (Collins et al, 2009).

Socioeconomic factors contribute to elevated tobacco use in adolescents and adults. Children from families with low socioeconomic status and those who experience the lack of parental involvement are at risks for developing smoking addiction early in life (CDC, 2000). The growing availability of tobacco products and peers’ approval are responsible for the expansion of tobacco use in adolescents (CDC, 2000). The significance of the stress-smoking relationship is difficult to underestimate: Perdikaris, Kletsiou, Gymnopoulou and Matziou(2010) confirmed a direct relationship between the level of workplace stress and self-reported nicotine dependence in nurses. Finally, individual features, differences, and predispositions play a role in tobacco use motivation. It appears that when their stress levels are equal, different individuals will display different tobacco use urges and reactions, based on the variations in reinforcement smoking (Leventhal, 2010). Obviously, the problem of tobacco use is too complex to tackle with the help of one single medical strategy. Rather, a series of behavioral and medical approaches could help individuals to overcome the barriers in their way to quitting their smoking habits.

Healthy People 2010 and Behavioral Treatment

According to CDC (2000), school-based prevention programs are the fundamental ingredients of the communitywide strategies to reduce and prevent tobacco use among adolescents. CDC (2000) reported that these programs proved to be effective in delaying or preventing adolescent smoking. The results of evidence-based research show that a whole range of smoking interventions can be effective for adults. These include clinician advice, individual and group counseling, telephone helplines, and nicotine replacement therapy (CDC, 2000). The latter used to be a popular topic of scholarly research. Apelberg, Onicescu, Avila-Tang and Samet(2010) evaluated the pros and cons of nicotine replacement therapy and concluded that nicotine replacement therapy increased the number of smoking cessation attempts in adults and reduced the scope of mortality from smoking-related diseases. Tonstad and Rollema (2010) investigated the relevance of varenicline in smoking cessation therapies for adults and found out that pharmacotherapies could add value and increase the efficiency of behavioral approaches to smoking cessation in the United States. Unfortunately, none of the proposed strategies is universal. A multitude of factors is responsible for tobacco use in the United States, and only individual approaches can help patients to cope with their tobacco use problems. Bearing in mind the significance of the negative health and financial effects of tobacco use in America, the future research will need to concentrate on developing and testing various combinations of behavioral approaches to target different population groups.

Conclusion

Tobacco use is a serious health issue in the United States. The current state of literature provides an insight into the dimensions of the tobacco use problem and highlights the factors that contribute to elevated tobacco use in America. Demographic and socioeconomic factors are the most significant contributors to tobacco use in the U.S.: age, gender, racial and ethnic backgrounds predetermine the differences in the tobacco use patterns across various population groups. Stress and individual differences make the situation even more complicated. The most effective behavioral approaches to tobacco use include clinician advice, counseling, telephone helplines, and nicotine replacement therapy. However, none of these approaches is universal. Given the multitude of factors responsible for tobacco use in America, the future research must concentrate on developing and testing various combinations of behavioral approaches to target different population groups.

References

Apelberg, B.J., Onicescu, G., Avila-Tang, E. &Samet, J. (2010). Estimating the risks and

benefits of nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 341-349. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.147223

CDC. (2010). Healthy people 2010: Tobacco use. Healthy People 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2010 from http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/pdf/Volume2/27Tobacco.pdf

Collins, B.N., Nair, U., Hovell, M.F. & Audrain-McGovern, J. (2009). Smoking-related weight concerns among underserved, black maternal smokers. American Journal of Health Behaviors, 33(6), 699-709.

Larson, C.O., Schlundt, D.G., Patel, K., Wang, H., Beard, K. & Hargreaves, M.K. (2009).

Trends in smoking among African-Americans: A description of Nashville’s REACH 2010 initiative. Journal of Community Health, 34, 311-320. doi:10.1007/s10900-009-9154-8

Leventhal, A.M. (2010). Do individual differences in reinforcement smoking moderate the relationship between affect and urge to smoke? Behavioral Medicine, 36, 1-6. doi:10.1080/08964280903521347

Perdikaris, P., Kletsiou, E., Gymnopoulou, E. &Matziou, V. (2010). The relationship between workplace, job stress and nurses’ tobacco use: A review of literature. International Journal of Environmental Research in Public Health, 7, 2362-2375. doi:10.3390/ijerph7052362

Tornstad, S. &Rollema, H. (2010). Varenicline in smoking cessation. Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine, 4(3), 291-299. doi:10.1586/ERS.10.27