Public Health Issue: Nursing Assignment

This nursing assignment discusses the negative effects of tobacco usage on human health and suggests ways to address the issue. It also highlights the impact on the healthcare delivery system.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Public Health Issue
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Identification of the issue.................................................................................................................2
Background Information..................................................................................................................3
Problem statement...........................................................................................................................3
Suggestions of addressing the issue.................................................................................................4
Impact on the health care delivery system.......................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
Reference.........................................................................................................................................6

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction
The usage of tobacco affects the human health negatively and there is a long history of
health effects associated with tobacco usage. The major health effects arising from tobacco are
due to the smoking of cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, hookahs, bidis, cigars, smokeless tobacco.
Tobacco usage leads to diseases that affect lungs, liver, and heart and due to smoking several
diseases occur which are: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart attacks and
different types of cancers (Kwan, Stratton & Bonnie, 2015). Tobacco usage also causes high
blood pressure and peripheral arterial disease. This study is based on nursing policy on the usage
of tobacco among the adults.
Identification of the issue
Tobacco usage is high within the adults of United States and is primarily in the form of
cigarette smoking. The negative effects of smoking were first noticed in the 1940s and the new
hazards are arising due to the increased smoking of cigarettes. The efforts to minimize smoking
has been highly successful due to the public health policies, effective regulatory methods,
scientific research. With the reduction in the smoking tendencies in the United States led to an
increase in the usage of tobacco products by the young adults and the adolescents. The tobacco
products which are used majorly are nicotine delivery products, non-cigarette tobacco which is
commonly designated as the alternative tobacco products (ATPs). Electronic cigarettes,
smokeless tobacco, cigars, and hookah are the most commonly used alternative tobacco products
(Lauterstein et al., 2014). Thus, there is an urgency to develop the regulatory policies that will
effectively mitigate the problems through the educational campaign, directed on the
dissemination of information of risks associated with the usage of ATPs.

3NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Background Information
The usage of tobacco is primarily established during the adolescence. It has been found
that around nine out of ten cigarette smokers have tried smoking at the age of 18, and about
ninety-nine percent have tried smoking at the age of twenty-six. In the United States, about three
thousand two hundred youths at the age of 18 years or below have smoked their first cigarettes.
About 2100 young adults are the cigarettes smoker on a daily basis. Adding flavors to the
tobacco products add more appeal to the youths. In 2014, according to the data 56 percent of the
middle school students and 73 percent of the high school students have used flavored tobacco
products (Neff et al., 2014). Data suggest that from the year 2011 to 2016, smoking of cigarettes
has declined to a great extent. Whereas, the usage of electronic cigarettes, hookahs, smokeless
tobacco have increased significantly. In the year 2016, approximately 4 million high and middle
school student of the United States have reported having used tobacco products and half of the
school student have also reported having used more than two different types of tobacco products
(Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2018a).
Thus an inference can be drawn that the population affected by the excessive tobacco
usage are the middle and the high school adults, the adolescents and the young adults. Data from
the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) was analyzed by The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) and the analysis reflects the tobacco abuse at the both local and the
national level (Neff et al., 2014). However, the US adults living in the South (24 percent) and
Midwest (25 percent) are most affected due to tobacco usage (Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, 2018b).

4NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Problem statement
Usage of tobacco products has its negative effects on the health of the adults and the
children, and it is known to all that due to prolonged usage of the tobacco products also causes
lung cancer. Whereas, the major concern is that the general public does not understand that other
than the lung diseases, usage of the tobacco products also cause different types of other illness
and diseases. According to Mishra et al. (2015), other than the lung cancer, there are other
potential diseases are caused due to the increased usage of tobacco products like stomach cancer,
kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, peripheral vascular cancer, coronary heart
disease and stroke.
Suggestions for addressing the issue
a) In the United States, currently, FDA cannot regulate the e-cigarettes that are not
therapeutic. Thus, FDA must bring reforms in the regulations in order to include non-
therapeutic e-cigarettes and the other tobacco products under its purview (American
Public Health Association, 2018). Here, the stakeholders will be the e-cigarette
manufacturers, the adult youths and the FDA. Public education campaigns can be
conducted which will effectively disseminate the major health outcomes due to the
abuse of the tobacco products by the school goers, young adults and the adolescents
(Food and Drug Administration 2018). Here, the stakeholders will be adult youths,
adolescents, school goers and the FDA. School nurses in the school can screen the
school-age youth and suggest them remedial regarding the abuse of the tobacco
products and also can provide necessary counseling (Potera 2013). Here, the
stakeholders are the nurses and the school going youths.

5NURSING ASSIGNMENT
b) The prevention programs which will be conducted in the affected States according to
CDC provided data will be around 15 percent of 25 billion dollars of the tobacco
settlement fund (Potera 2013).
Impact on the health care delivery system
Due to the implementation of the various solutions as mentioned above, like bringing
non-therapeutic e-cigarettes under the purview of FDA will greatly restrict their usage. FDA will
be able to restrict the flow of these tobacco products into the hands of the adolescent and the
young adults. This will help to mitigate the abuse of the tobacco products by the young adults
and the school goers. Through the second solution, the awareness campaigns organized for
spreading the awareness regarding the excessive usage of the tobacco products will affect the
minds of the young adults and the adolescents and will deter them from using tobacco products
(Lauterstein et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that there abuse of the tobacco products
among the school goers, adolescents and the young adults are on a record high. This has been
due to the faults in the regulatory policies of FDA and can be corrected only by taking the
necessary steps. The adults of the South and the Midwest are the most affected in comparison to
the other parts of USA. Thus, effective mitigation strategies will help in controlling and reducing
the incidence of the diseases due to the usage of tobacco products by the adults.

6NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Reference
American Public Health Association. (2018). Supporting regulation of electronic cigarettes.
Apha.org. Retrieved 23 February 2018, from https://www.apha.org/policies-and-
advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2015/01/05/12/58/supporting-
regulation-of-electronic-cigarettes
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018b). CDC - Tobacco-Related Disparities -
Tobacco Use by Geographic Region - Smoking & Tobacco Use. Smoking and Tobacco
Use. Retrieved 23 February 2018, from
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/disparities/geographic/index.htm
Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. (2018a). CDC - Fact Sheet - Youth and Tobacco Use
- Smoking & Tobacco Use. Smoking and Tobacco Use. Retrieved 23 February 2018, from
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/
index.htm
Food and Drug Administration. (2018). Public Health Education Campaigns. Fda.gov. Retrieved
23 February 2018, from
https://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/PublicHealthEducation/PublicEducationCampaign
s/default.htm
Kwan, L. Y., Stratton, K., & Bonnie, R. J. (Eds.). (2015). Public health implications of raising
the minimum age of legal access to tobacco products. National Academies Press.
Lauterstein, D., Hoshino, R., Gordon, T., Watkins, B. X., Weitzman, M., & Zelikoff, J. (2014).
The changing face of tobacco use among United States youth. Current drug abuse
reviews, 7(1), 29-43.

7NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Mishra, A., Chaturvedi, P., Datta, S., Sinukumar, S., Joshi, P., & Garg, A. (2015). Harmful
effects of nicotine. Indian journal of medical and paediatric oncology: official journal of
Indian Society of Medical & Paediatric Oncology, 36(1), 24.
Neff, L. J., Arrazola, R. A., Caraballo, R. S., Corey, C. G., Cox, S., & King, B. A. (2015).
Frequency of tobacco use among middle and high school students—United States, 2014.
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 64(38), 1061-1065.
Potera, C. (2013). Tobacco-Use Prevention Goes Up In Smoke. AJN The American Journal of
Nursing, 113(3), 18.