Introduction
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ranks amid the most widespread chronic diseases across the globe and is currently the third major source of death in the United States. In the course of the last two decades, COPD-associated measures, including incidence and death rate, have augmented more rapidly among women when judged against men, changing the historical view that COPD is predominantly an illness for men. Amid African American women, smoking has been the greatest risk factor for COPD (Bethea, Murtagh, & Wallace, 2015). In the United States, cigarette smoking amid women peaked in the course of the 1980s. Studies show that in developing countries, the prevalence of smoking amid women is anticipated to rise to twenty percent by 2025. African American women experience more severe COPD at young ages with low levels of cigarette exposure, and this worsens with age and continued smoking. This paper seeks to establish whether smoking cessation improves the quality of life in African American women beyond 50 years who are smokers with COPD.
Effects of COPD
Smoking is the greatest cause of COPD, which destroys the air passages, in addition to the air sacs. This results in persistent coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, and lasting lung problems. Above ninety percent of deaths from smoking emanate from chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which are referred to as COPD (Miller, Owens, Collins, & Silverman, 2014). Research shows that a higher number of African American females as compared to males die due to the effects of COPD as they are highly probable of getting advanced COPD. The effects of COPD worsen with the number of cigarettes smoked every day, in addition to the number of years an African American female has been smoking. African American women from 35 years of age and older are nearly thirteen times more probable of dying from COPD as compared to the ones who are nonsmokers. The lungs develop more tardily in adolescent girls who smoke, which leads to the loss of lung health in early maturity and greater impacts such as death for the ones who continue smoking to beyond 50 years.
Smoking Cessation and Quality of Life
Different researchers have assessed the progression of the death rate among African American women smokers and compared it with smoking cessation. In the United States Nurses’ Health Study, African American women having nonfatal coronary cardiac problems, cancer (apart from non-melanoma), and stroke were eliminated for enhanced estimation of the impacts of cessation. In the study, the Relative Risk for death from COPD was 1.15 amid women who had ceased smoking and considerably higher (2.04) amid women who persisted in smoking to over 50 years. The Relative Risk amid the smokers reduced gradually due to smoking cessation; in ten to fourteen years following smoking cessation, the Relative Risk approached the one for nonsmokers (the ones that had never engaged in smoking) (Wu & Sin, 2011).
Studies affirm that in a 7-year span of time, African American women who are smokers with COPD have the greatest cumulative likelihood of death. The ones that had ceased smoking, especially at younger ages, had an average risk and the ones that had never smoked had the least risk. The risk amid the women that had ceased smoking prior to or after 50 years of age was just a little greater when compared against that of non-smoking women and, with time, the risk turned impossible to differentiate. The cessation of smoking greatly improves the quality of life and could avert or reverse many smoking-associated diseases (Raherison et al., 2014). Specifically modified online provider plans could support nurses and other health professionals to discuss smoking with smokers of any age. Pediatric counseling, in addition to interventions, is vital to the cessation of smoking for smokers, and prevention of smoking for non-smokers.
African American women with COPD who ceased smoking from the age of between 45 and 54 years and the ones who ceased between the age of 55 and 64 years added approximately six and four years of existence, respectively. Apart from the extension of life, the quality of life was considerably improved (Foreman et al., 2011). Since the absolute dangers of continued smoking are large, the absolute benefits of cessation will as well be immense, especially with the death rates amid non-smokers continuing to fall and the quality of life improving for African American women over 50 years with COPD who cease smoking. The cessation of smoking at about 50 years of age leads to approximately a ninety percent decrease in the excess possibility of death related to persistent smoking in old age. As affirmed in the Lung Health Study, smoking cessation is a verified means of decreasing the progression of COPD. Smoking cessation is linked to an improvement in lung function and decreased rate of hospitalization and mortality. Moreover, cessation of smoking amid African American women over 50 years with COPD results in improved breathing and a doubling in improvement of lung function after a year of non-smoking.
The benefits of smoking cessation, nevertheless, do not imply that it is safe for one to smoke until over fifty years of age and then cease smoking. The risks of COPD amid other health problems for smokers are immense and are worth preventing than curing (Wu & Sin, 2011). The approximately 16% of African America women over fifty years with COPD who cease smoking and die before eighty years of age would possibly have died older if their life expectancy had been similar to that of people that had never smoked. There are considerable gains of smoking cessation, the greater advantage for African American women who cease smoking at younger years, and the most favorable conditions for never having to begin smoking. In the US, the current increase of about 60% in the tax on every packet of cigarettes, national mass-media crusade, and the expansion of the cover for cessation as a section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will possibly increase the rate of smoking cessation.
Conclusion
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the most widespread chronic disease across the globe and is mainly caused by smoking. COPD results in persistent coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, enduring lung problems, and greater impacts such as death for African American women who continue smoking to beyond 50 years of age or even earlier. Cessation of smoking significantly improves the quality of life and could avoid or reverse several smoking-associated fatalities. Cessation of smoking in African American women over 50 years with COPD leads to enhanced breathing and a doubling in betterment of lung function after a year of not smoking. However, the risks of COPD amid other health difficulties for smokers are immense and are worth preventing by not smoking than trying to cure later.
References
Bethea, J., Murtagh, B., & Wallace, S. E. (2015). “I don’t mind damaging my own body”: A qualitative study of the factors that motivate smokers to quit. BMC Public Health, 15(4), 15-31.
Foreman, M. G., Zhang, L., Murphy, J., Hansel, N. N., Make, B., Hokanson, J. E., & DeMeo, D. L. (2011). Early-onset chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is associated with female sex, maternal factors, and African American race in the COPDGene study. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 184(4), 414-420.
Miller, S., Owens, L., Collins, T., & Silverman, E. (2014). Psychophysiology of respiratory disease: Clinical considerations for the advanced practice nurse. Malta Journal of Health Sciences, 1(1), 24-26.
Raherison, C., Tillie-Leblond, I., Prudhomme, A., Taillé, C., Biron, E., Nocent-Ejnaini, C., & Ostinelli, J. (2014). Clinical characteristics and quality of life in women with COPD: An observational study. BMC women’s health, 14(1), 1-6.
Wu, J., & Sin, D. D. (2011). Improved patient outcome with smoking cessation: When is it too late? International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 6, 259-267.