Critical Analysis of National Health Promotional Programme

This study provides a critical analysis of the National Health Promotional Programme, focusing on its impacts, opportunities, limitations, and overall effectiveness in preventing disease and improving health.

Critical Analysis of
National Health
Promotional
Programme

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background context of programme along with requirement.......................................................1
Requirement or importance.........................................................................................................2
Political influence and relevant legislation that led to implementation of the program..............2
Evaluation of impacts of programme including opportunities and limitations...........................3
Overall effectiveness of this programme.....................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Health promotion can be defined as a process of making people able to increase control over
and improving overall health (Byrne & et.al., (2016). This present study is based on the National
tobacco programme whose main aim is to prevent Torres Islanders, Aboriginals and Australian
adults against disease associated to smoking and reducing this smoking rate. This will show
some functions which organizations of this programme play to reducing smoking rates and
improving overall health as giving advertisement, changing behaviours of people towards
smoking and making them aware about side effects of it. It will also discuss reasons and
importance developing health promotional program and how it is helping out people in
improving their health. Further, it will show opportunities, challenges, effectiveness and roles of
government in successful implementation of programme.
Background context of programme along with requirement
Before discussing health promotion programme, it is important to understand health
promotion. It is a process which makes people able to increase control over their health and
improving their lives. There are some areas in which people are not educate and do not have
knowledge about disease, side effects and other Duke & et.al., (2018). For making people aware
about side effects of smoking, drugs, alcohol and other disease, promotional programme has
been developed. National health promotion and disease prevention programme main focuses on
keeping people healthy and engage them in choosing healthy behaviour.
In the context of the national tobacco campaign it can be said that it is one of the health’s
longest running public health campaign whose main aim is to reduce smoking rates which is
increasing day by day in Australia. It has been launched and developed in the year of 1997 The
National Tobacco Campaign, (2020). The main target of this campaign is adults of Australia and
Aboriginal people as they consume drugs, alcohol and smoking to the great extent and it is
affecting their health to the great extent. It has been found that after development of this program
and within 5 years’ rate of smoking in adults had reduced to around 3.7%. so, it can be said that
there is requirement of developing such promotional programme for improving health of
Australian Zhang & et.al., (2016).

Requirement or importance
There is several national health promotional programme whose overall aim is to prevent people
against disease and improve their overall health. But the main aim and requirement of
developing this national smoking or tobacco campaign is to make people aware about disease
which are associated with smoking, improving their health, prevent them against chronic disease
Jackson-Morris & Latif, (2017). Some main goals of developing this campaign are:
Changing community attitudes towards smoking and improving their living. They also
want to develop strong smoking control policies. On of the other main reasons of developing
such campaigns is to help people out in leaving habit of smoking and discouraging people from
smoking and making them able to live a healthy life. One of the other main goal is to reducing
financial cost to health system of Australia.
There are some facts which have been stated regarding smoking which puts pressure on all of us
to develop program and making people aware: Tobacco and smoking use is one of the main
leading causes of disability as well as preventable death in Australia. It is also identified that
smoking and drugs use killed an estimated 21,000-22,000 Australian in the year of 2015. This
increasing use of leading to economic, financial and social cost in the economy.
For accomplishing goals of above discussed national smoking programme, some
involved institutions are making use of communicational modes as by giving advertise on TV,
digital apps they are making them aware. Special programmes are also being developed for
Aboriginal and Torres islanders by making partnership with mental health organization.
On the other hand, it is found that health argument is not strong enough to ban tobacco
which are being produced and delivered in the huge quantity. Smoking will still continue in this
century and it may reach in 22nd century as well. There are several people who use drugs and
smoke to the great extent and there is lack of policies who can legally bind them to not to use this
and also can ban on producing. So, there is requirement of other ways to act and strengthen the
network which can make it possible for the future generation to wipe this pest off completely
from the earth Pneumol, Smoking Control: Challenges and Achievements. J Bras, (2016).

Political influence and relevant legislation that led to implementation of the program
In the context of political influence and support it is found that organizations that are
working for people and developing programme are getting support of the government. In this
regard, government has developed some policies which provide a framework for action in order
to minimize harms to individuals caused by smoking. This national drug strategy 2010-2015
focuses on 7 areas which 2004-2009 strategy wanted to improve such as:
 Increase promotion of quit and smoke free message.
 Improving quality, access to services relate to treatment for smokers.
 Providing support to parents and helping children in living a healthy lifestyle by making
them aware about dangerous effects of smoking in school.
All areas which have been found and focus of 2004-2009 strategy will be continued in
this new 2010-2015 strategy. It is also found regarding support of Australian government in
successful implementation of this program is the Australian Government reports every two years
to the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC on progress in implementing the convention.
By making a national partnership agreement on closing the gap in Indigenous health outcomes
all are working in an effective manner and accomplishing goals.
Recent national tobacco strategy 2012-2018 is an effective strategy and has been
developed for focusing on all those areas which remained untouched and which can help
organization in accomplishing them, main goal of preventing Australian against disease
associated with smoking and reducing this drugs consumptions rate. In the 2018 Budget
submission to the Federal Government has invested in tobacco control policies and programme,
As per the national healthcare agreement, National Tobacco Strategy, (2018). State and territory
governments are also taking an active participation and interest in reducing tobacco use rate and
controlling plans. There are some frameworks have been developed regarding this which shows
that Australian government wants to control of tobacco use in Australia and improve economy as
well such as:
Western Australian health promotion strategic framework 2017-2021.
Tasmania tobacco control plan 2017-2021.
There is some other tobacco industry influence in which governments at all national, local and
state level needs to free themselves of some influences by

 Ending investment by government and pension funds in tobacco companies.
 Banning donations which come from tobacco companies.
The Australian Government is also focusing on cancer prevention program in which it identifies
several ways of controlling cancer. Through regulations, policies, education and support
programmes, it is creating an environment in which it encourages people to reduce tobacco use
and maintaining a good level of physical activity and good nutrition.
Evaluation of impacts of programme including opportunities and limitations
Before discussing effectiveness and impacts of developed programme it is important to
understand side effects of tobacco use or smoking Harvard & et.al., (2018). It is stated that an
estimated 15,000 Australian die each year only because of tobacco related disease. As per the
data and survey it is also found that in the year of 2010, around 15.1 per cent of Australians aged
14 years or over were smoking daily and around 3 million were smoking at least daily or weekly.
And the rate of tobacco use in Aboriginal and Torres Islanders was more than double to general
population. So, there were requirement of developing such kinds of programme which can make
them aware and prevent them against this (Augustine & et.al., (2016)). Main target of 2010-2015
strategy was minimizing the national adult daily smoking rate to 10 per cent of the population by
the year of 2018. There are some positive effects which all policies 2010-2015, 2004-2009 have
on health of people and community’s behaviour towards smoking such as:
There is an effectiveness of public education campaign related to smoking or tobacco use.
It is found that all these programmes influence people decision-making regarding quitting
smoking who wanted to quit but was finding difficulties in quitting. This education programme
also helped to those people who was not at this point but were higher chances of become
addicted to smoking and tobacco use because of environment in which they live and lack of
awareness. All these programmes have effects which are small, but saved lives of many people.
From one of the data and evaluation it is found that after development of the first policy and
programme of smoking and tobacco use, this national tobacco programme achieved a reduction
of around 190,000 smokers. Anti-smoking public education programme for adults, aboriginal,
Torres Islanders and children was very effective as it helped several people in quitting smoking
and free healthcare services were also being provided to them in order to improve their health

(Carroll, & et.al., (2019) An increasing rate of participation of Australian or smokers in such
programmes were measured which clearly stated that people want to quit smoking but finding
problems and need guidance.
In addition, it does not only help in improving health and quitting smoking to people but
also was one of the main source of economy improvement as cost-effectiveness found. In survey,
many Torres islanders people reported themselves as Ex smokers and it all happens because of
effective advertisement made on smoking which developed fear among people as if they do not
quit smoking then it will affect their health and caused to death before the age and must keep
their family, friends, children behind lonely. But there were some people who found such
emotional advertisement in a negative manner and it affected their health Pearson & et.al.,
(2017). It all happens because of the behaviours towards smoking as well as extent of smoking.
They said that they find such advertisement valueless and it creates fear among their family
members nothing else. So, it can be said that advertisement and educational programmes have
both positive and negative effect people and their health.
On the other hand, it can be said that cost is one of the main problem associated with
these programs as making people aware about tobacco use and its all side effects, government
has to invests in strategies and policies to the great extent. Spending in the areas of cessation
interventions, health communication interventions were found to have a some negative impact on
cigarette sales in all models that were estimated. It is also found that most of the tax come from
selling of cigarette and these programmes can decrease sales of cigarette which can have some
negative impacts. So, some politics opposed these programs as it is one of the main source of
income.
Overall effectiveness of this programme
From survey on adults and people of Australia overall effectiveness of the National
tobacco campaigns found and in results around 85% of adolescent smokers stated that this
campaign and programmes were effective for them. As around 53% stated that this campaign
had great effects on thinking and behaviours of teenagers towards smoking, and they were at the
point of trying to quit smoking Drovandi & et.al., (2019). On the other hand, 85% stated that this
campaign and programmes made smoking seem less cool and desirable. Around 27% cutting
down the number of cigarettes they used to smoke and around 26% are at the stage of thinking

about quitting. It has also found that adolescents were aware of this anti smoking campaign and
such programmes and believed that it can be effective for them and can help them out in making
a mind of quitting smoking. So, the main aim of promoting anti-smoking attitudes among
adolescents got achieved to great extent excepting some areas which still required to be focused
Bayly, Cotter and Carroll, (2019).
So, overall it can be said that from data who have reduced smoking cigarette and people who are
thinking about quitting it can be said that people want to quit, and they have known side effects
of smoking and it is injurious to their health but finding some problems when they try to quit
smoking Wilkinson & et.al., (2019). It may be their psychology and thinking that if they quit
smoking directly then it will affect their health but for that also they require proper guidance and
healthcare services which are also being provided to them. Except some people who think
smoking makes they cool and smoking cigarette to some extent cannot affect their health, almost
people want to quit smoking because of fear of chronic disease and losing of their family
members, friends and children.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarized that the national tobacco campaign and all
promotional programmes relevant to smoking and tobacco played a vital role as it helped many
people in quitting smoking and improving health. Further, it has discussed some roles and
policies which have been developed by governments to improve health and preventing people
against disease associated with smoking. It has also shown some positive as well as some
negative effects of anti-smoking programmes as how it affected and changed behaviours of
people towards smoking as some people affected in a positive manner while some got not
affected at all.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Augustine, J. M. & et.al., (2016). Smoking quit rates among patients receiving pharmacist-
provided pharmacotherapy and telephonic smoking cessation counseling. Journal of the
American Pharmacists Association. 56(2). 129-136.
Byrne, D. W. & et.al., (2016). Modifiable healthy lifestyle behaviors: 10-year health outcomes
from a health promotion program. American journal of preventive medicine, 51(6),
1027-1037.
Drovandi, A. & et.al., (2019). Australian community pharmacist experiences with smoking
cessation and opinions of health warnings on individual cigarette sticks. International
Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 27(2), 121-130.
Duke, J. C. & et.al., (2018). Effect of a national tobacco public education campaign on youth’s
risk perceptions and beliefs about smoking. American Journal of Health
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Havard, A. & et.al., (2018). Tobacco policy reform and population-wide antismoking activities
in Australia: the impact on smoking during pregnancy. Tobacco control, 27(5), 552-
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Jackson-Morris, A., & Latif, E. (2017). Index of tobacco control sustainability (ITCS): a tool to
measure the sustainability of national tobacco control programmes. Tobacco
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Pearson, A. L. & et.al., (2017). Tobacco retail outlet restrictions: health and cost impacts from
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Wilkinson, A. L. & et.al., (2019). Smoking prevalence following tobacco tax increases in
Australia between 2001 and 2017: an interrupted time-series analysis. The Lancet
Public Health, 4(12), e618-e627.
Zhang, L. & et.al., (2016). The impact of a national tobacco education campaign on state-specific
quitline calls. American Journal of Health Promotion, 30(5), 374-381.
ONLINE
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