Running head: TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE 1

TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE

Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Institution

Course

Date
TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE 2

Research Paper Outline

 Introduction

 Background of the research

 Thesis statement

 Purpose of the research

 Body

 Breaking Barriers to Cessation of Tobacco

 Increased Cshallenges

 Recommendations
TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE 3

Tobacco Addiction Challenge

Introduction

According to the provisional reports on challenges to smoking cessation by Lung

Association (2008), more than 37,000 of deaths as well as increased economic costs estimating

to almost $18 billion in Canada is believed to be as a result of the addiction of tobacco. And

gradually, this notion is continuing to be the most unpreventable case in regard to mortality and

morbidity in this particular country. In the tobacco smoke, it is estimated that there are more than

7,500 unknown chemicals and 62 known carcinogens, which result in individual and secondary

impacts even to the second-hand and third-hand smokers. Nevertheless, over the past few

decades, the smoking o tobacco has been reported to have decreased considerably, given an

estimation of from above 40% in the early 80s, to 16% in 2007. This has resulted from the use of

amplified measures that include, but not limited to, consumer regulation, taxation, and limited

advertisement. With the negative results of tobacco use being documented on each and every

package of cigarette in Canada, an approximate of 16% to 21% of Canadians are believed to

have continued their daily use. And so, there is a substantial challenge on the basis of achieving

an end to smoking for these individuals, thus a call for health care practitioners. What's more,

besides implementing various strategies and policy interventions like bans from adverts, free

spaces for smoking, and taxation, interventions from health care givers is also an effective

concern to address this particular menace. For that case, this article articulates on the approaches

to smoking cessation in Canada, describing the challenges behind, while outlining the

recommendations that ought to be heightened for the purpose of addressing the challenge of

tobacco use in long-term.

Breaking Barriers to Cessation of Tobacco

TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE 4

It is ironical in the fact that it took more than a century for the use of tobacco to become a

global impact, yet; because of increased aspects of communication, it has taken substantially less

time for the dangers posed to spread. Thus, it becomes a challenge to identify a specific point at

which the knowledge on the consequences of tobacco use is accepted in our modern community

today. This has been caused by several views.

 Reduction in support for and against Tobacco Control

There are no doubts that Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy by Mdege &

Chindove (2014) has contributed a lot in delivering a systematic review regarding the

effectiveness of tobacco use, and the interventions that ought to be provided. In an indisputable

way, the use of tobacco has many advantages and disadvantages to the users, but the thing is,

scientifically, scholars have failed to state how tobacco has been one of the most addictive

substances used by Canadians. Consequently, it's from this addictive power that tobacco use

poses a significant challenge to smokers, causing cessation efforts at both individual and societal

levels.

 Socioeconomic and Demographic factors

In the literature, the implications of socioeconomic and demographic factors on the challenge

of tobacco use varies considerably. For a case, Lam (2012) has found that certain predictive facet

like sex, race, and gender influences the smoking pattern of a person. Also, the level of

education, the status he/she has, as well as higher income, are just but the few linkages to the

cessation of smoking medications, and/or quitting. More to this issue is the fact that those with

higher education and private drug insurance are subjected to the intolerable use of tobacco

because they tend to use agents of smoking cessation.

TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE 5

 Increased Gap in Health care

Another challenge is the increased gap in health care. There are indications from the

available data, which shows that the advice of physicians plays a vital role in enhancing

unprompted rates of smoking cessation. As the survey conducted by Ulbricht et.al (2011)

elucidates, in Canada, only a small percentage of professionals (19%) have had any formal

training in respect to counseling on smoking cessation. But, amongst them, family physicians are

reported to be highly involved with the smoking cessation of their parents.

Increased Challenges

Arguably, even with the above encouraging factors to quit, a survey on Tobacco Control

by Hammond et.al (2003) adds that factors like friends and family pressure and fewer public

spaces also act as encouraging factors, posing challenges to tobacco addiction, hence; a need for

smokers to be diagnosed with a health problem to act as a motivation for quitting.

In fact, there are a variety of issues from the health care practitioner that diminish their

ability to achieve competence. One of them is the inability and unwillingness to effectively

intervene with patients who are addicted to tobacco. Therefore, training such practitioners would

be an effective strategy towards the improvement of smoking cessation rates. Other issues

include barriers to expense, effort and time, involvement in dissemination, the beliefs of

practitioners, and lack of familiarity and confidence with the resources being used, leading to the

inappropriate organization, and sometimes lacking support to intervene.

Recommendations

For that case, it is significant for practitioners to accept their responsibilities and provide

counseling on smoking cessation to those affected patients. Besides, practitioners, as well as

TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE 6

other responsible individuals, should be confident in their abilities for effective delivery of

cessation strategies. Raising taxes on tobacco is perhaps the most effective strategy on smoking

cessation. Increasing taxes on tobacco would mean an increase in prices, in turn encouraging the

users to quit. Further, there is the need to prevent initiation of smoking to the potential new users.
TOBACCO ADDICTION CHALLENGE 7

References

Hammond, D., Fong, G. T., McDonald, P. W., Cameron, R., & Brown, K. S. (2003). Impact of

the graphic Canadian warning labels on adult smoking behaviour. Tobacco

control, 12(4), 391-395.

Lam, T. H. (2012). Absolute risk of tobacco deaths: one in two smokers will be killed by

smoking: comment on “Smoking and all-cause mortality in older people”. Archives of

internal medicine, 172(11), 845-846.

Lung Association. (2008). Making Quit Happen: Canada's Challenges to Smoking Cessation:

Provincial Reports. Lung Association.

Mdege, N. D., & Chindove, S. (2014). Effectiveness of tobacco use cessation interventions

delivered by pharmacy personnel: a systematic review. Research in Social and

Administrative Pharmacy, 10(1), 21-44.

Ulbricht, S., Klein, G., Haug, S., Gross, B., Rumpf, H. J., John, U., & Meyer, C. (2011).

Smokers' expectations toward the engagement of their general practitioner in discussing

lifestyle behaviors. Journal of health communication, 16(2), 135-147.