Introduction
Cigarettes containing tobacco and nicotine have been used for years, but with new methods of smoking being introduced, the numbers are rising. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2022), 22.3% of the global population uses tobacco, 36.7% of all men and 7.8% of the world’s women. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP, n.d.) states that men, American Indians, Alaska Natives, people with behavioral health conditions, LGBT people, and people with lower incomes and education levels are more likely to get into smoking and are less likely to quit. Over 80% (1.04 billion) of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries (WHO, 2022). These are areas faced with high levels of unemployment and low standards of living.
Medical Approach
One way to develop a promotion plan is to use a medical approach that focuses on reducing mortality and morbidity. Activity is mainly focused on high-risk groups and sometimes on whole populations (Sibeudu, 2022). This type of health promotion seeks to prevent disease and early death by increasing clinical interventions (Sibeudu, 2022). In short, this approach targets people who are sick to reduce their sickness. In this case, the professional has the responsibility to ensure people’s adherence to treatment regimens. In most instances, people do not possess full information.
Behavioral Approach
Making healthy decisions can be complicated and requires a lot of self-motivation. In this context, a behavioral approach attempts to inspire individuals to use preventive health services, adopt a healthy lifestyle, and take responsibility for their health (Sibeudu, 2022). The behavioral approach tends to be popular because it considers health an individual asset, and people can make good decisions in order to improve their assets (Sibeudu, 2022). Additionally, this approach assumes that people can blame only themselves if they do not look after their health. It is the reason why the method of behavioral change is predominantly based on changing a person’s behaviors.
Empowerment Approach
Within health promotion, empowerment is a procedure through which people can control and manage their health and the factors affecting it. This method focuses on helping people develop decision-making and problem-solving skills and encourages them to engage in critical thinking and action (Sibeudu, 2022). The health expert’s function is to act as a facilitator – they assist individuals in identifying their concerns and help them acquire the information and capabilities needed to make adjustments (Sibeudu, 2022). Empowerment of individuals and communities is vital in health promotion as individuals or groups have the knowledge, abilities, and competencies to make contributions and decisions.
Educational Approach
The educational approach aims to provide information and facts and develop relevant skills so that individuals can make knowledgeable choices about their health. In other words, the educational method aims to offer people facts and motivate them to make choices regarding their health behavior (Sibeudu, 2022). Educational interventions require the educator to understand the concepts the person is studying and any factors that assist or thwart the learning process (Sibeudu, 2022). The educational method is based on the premise that access to information can help change and modify behavior. When a person is knowledgeable, they can make clear choices acceptable to health experts and the public.
Concrete Plan Steps
This health promotion plan focuses on the population of adolescents both male and female in a rural community since young people are vital to tobacco control efforts. The tobacco industry knows that exposure to tobacco advertising causes young people to start smoking, and most people start smoking cigarettes before the age of 18 (CDC, 2022). Therefore, the primary goal of the plan is to increase the proportion of adolescents who get a formal education on the health effects of smoking before 18 years of age. This goal aligns with many Healthy People 2030 leading health indicators concerning tobacco use in adolescents, namely TU-04 (ODPHP, n.d.). Apart from increasing overall public awareness regarding the issue, the goal can be met by delivering educational sessions in middle and high schools. The goals for the session would be set with concern for the age of participants, Healthy People 2030 objectives, and the prevalence of smoking in the rural community.
School Sessions – Verbalization
The main idea of this goal is that, after participation in the teaching sessions, participants will verbalize their understanding of the risks of tobacco smoking. Verbalization, as such, often tends to be undervalued; however, it is crucial from a psychological perspective. According to Sousa et al. (2019), it “provides opportunities for the patients to gain clearer perspectives through insights and self-awareness regarding their experiences, which in turn have cognitive, emotional, and behavioral impacts” (p. 165). Even outside of psychotherapy, the activity of vernalizing experiences leads to a better understanding. In this context, outcomes can be evaluated by directly questioning students about the main points of the session. Based on their feedback, professionals will be able to adjust corresponding session sections accordingly to achieve better results in the future.
School Sessions – Role Play
In short, participants will create skits on the dangers of tobacco use and how to say “NO” when offered tobacco as they role-play with their peers at the end of the teaching session. Overall, this game has great potential to improve students’ cognitive and thinking processes (Umarboyevna, 2020). According to Umarboyevna (2020), role-playing at an older age is almost synonymous with practicing self-management skills during play and in other contexts. Apart from that, role-playing implies constantly memorizing and recalling much information, ultimately leading to more proficient information assimilation. Therefore, based on the considerations listed above, it can be concluded that the game and its activity generally play a substantial role in shaping and mastering various behavioral skills.
Public Awareness – Positive Behaviors
The need for smoking is not a biological need; it appears due to a lack of knowledge, misunderstanding, inadequate upbringing, and environmental influences. Due to the lack of upbringing, strong-willed qualities, and forbidden barriers, teenagers often have an unmotivated protest against “everyone and everything in the world,” which is a reason to start smoking (Yeremenchuk, 2020). Thus, another goal of this promotion is to improve adolescent behavior by raising public understanding of the reasons why teens smoke. This goal can be met by using local media to address the issue. If the effort proves unsuccessful, a possible change is to involve parents as well – an additional source of authority can increase persuasiveness. Monitoring students’ engagement in such encouragement can serve as the intervention’s success indicator.
Public Awareness – Help-Seeking
The main goal here is to motivate adolescents to seek help from parents, school nurses, or a counselor if they are having difficulty with quitting tobacco use. Currently, a lack of awareness results in numerous barriers to a help-seeking attitude among adolescents. For instance, according to Kaufman et al. (2020), adolescents and adults differ in risk perceptions – the former tend to view risky behaviors as significantly less harmful than their adult counterparts. This, combined with the tendency to lean toward opinions popular among peers instead of parental views, results in a decision not to act despite needing help. Therefore, regulating the channels and targeting of health promotion should be considered to minimize adolescents’ exposure to tobacco. Consequently, measuring resulting risk perceptions can provide valuable information regarding the intervention’s efficiency.
Session Outcomes
The session outcomes will concern the desire of participants to engage in the smoking activity. After the session, each individual must show their decreased interest in either tobacco or popular e-cigarettes, which are commonly used by younger generations. When analyzing the health outcomes and possible ways to reduce addiction, students will demonstrate self-awareness and resistance to peer pressure.
The outcomes will be measured based on the participants’ self-awareness and management skills. In order to improve future sessions, questionnaires can be incorporated to monitor the progress of individuals and see whether they have any gaps or require help in terms of tobacco addiction topic. These changes might improve future outcomes since they will focus not only on the role plays with participants and intended cooperative activities but personal feedback and insights. With such an approach, it will be possible to show the participant whether they have a complete understanding of the issue and require extra help.
Conclusion
The plan’s main goal is to increase the percentage of teenagers who receive formal instruction on the negative health impacts of smoking before becoming 18 years old. Its overall strategy is to prevent such behavior from happening and provide support for stopping in the event of a serious dependency. The baseline of Healthy People 2030 is 18.3% of students who actively smoke, with the target being 11.3% (Healthy People 2030, n.d.). Upon the end of sessions, adolescent participants must be knowledgeable about smoking and the consequences of such an addiction. The overall goal of the session is to illustrate to individuals what risks are associated with smoking, including diseases and debilitating health outcomes. Consequently, participants will have a basic understanding of this addiction’s repercussions and how both active and passive smoking can be dangerous. Finally, individuals will possess general knowledge regarding the approaches to stop tobacco addiction.
As a result, in order to be consistent with several of the leading health indicators for Healthy People 2030, specifically TU-04, the progress is shown through a complete understanding of diseases and health risks associated with smoking, along with ways to reduce addiction. The changes that can be recommended to better align the session with Healthy People 2030 objectives and leading health indicators concern the popular means of smoking. For instance, instead of focusing on regular cigarettes, it can be essential to focus on the negative aspects of e-cigarettes.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2022). Best practices for comprehensive tobacco control programs 2014. Web.
Healthy People 2030. (n.d.). Reduce current tobacco use in adolescents — TU‑04. Health. Web.
Kaufman, A. R., Twesten, J. E., Suls, J., McCaul, K. D., Ostroff, J. S., Ferrer, R. A., & Klein, W. M. (2020). Measuring cigarette smoking risk perceptions. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 22(11), 1937-1945. Web.
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP). (n.d.). Tobacco use. Healthy People 2030. Web.
Shikova, I., & Board, E. I. A. (2020). From differentiated to “smart” integration. 20 Years of the European Studies Department: Compilation of Articles, 23- 48.