Assessment of Respiratory Status: Reducing Tobacco Use with HBM

This essay explores the importance of reducing tobacco use due to its harmful effects on health, including lung diseases, heart problems, and cancer. It highlights the dangers of both primary and secondary smoking, referencing the World Health Organization's classification of tobacco as a leading cause of preventable deaths. The essay advocates for quitting smoking to improve overall health, oral hygiene, and self-esteem. It applies the Health Belief Model (HBM) to understand and address the factors influencing tobacco use, such as perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy. The HBM is used to create a conceptual framework for understanding how individuals perceive the risks and rewards associated with smoking, and how these perceptions can be leveraged to promote smoking cessation and prevent tobacco-related illnesses. The essay concludes by emphasizing the role of awareness messages and confidence-building in helping individuals overcome their addiction to tobacco.

Running Head: ASSESSMENT OF RESPIRATORY STATUS
Assessment of Respiratory Status
Student’s name
Institution’s name

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Helping a Friend Reduce Tobacco Use
Why it is important to change the behavior
Various diseases come about due to the habit of smoking tobacco. Some of the wide-
ranging lung diseases that accrue from smoking include emphysema, lung cancer, and asthma.
Smokers are normally 12 times more likely to die from COPD than people who do not smoke.
COPD is short for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. People that smoke get into the habit
of accompanying them with cigarettes and lighters, which can be an untidy habit that might not
be pleasing to other people. Smoke from tobacco is not only harmful to the heart and lungs, but it
also affects nearly all the major organs in the body. Smokers have a higher susceptibility to heart
attacks and heart failures than non-smokers do.
Smoking of Tobacco is one of the leading causes of drug addiction and deaths the world
over. Smoking of cigarettes is not only harmful to us when we smoke but also to the people
around us (Jarvis, 2015). The people who smoke are called primary consumers whereas as the
people that inhales smoke from the smokers are the secondary smokers. The World Health
Organization puts the use of Tobacco at the second leading killer addictive drug in the world. On
the other hand, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States
(Mecklenburg, 2014). Of all the cigarettes that are smoked 40% are known to lead to the
formation of various types of cancer from the throat all the way down to the voice box.
In the long term, smoking has negative effects on the life of the unborn child. Diabetes,
colon cancer, cervix cancer, and even stomach cancer are but some of the other diseases that are
highly associated with the smoking of tobacco (Jarvis, 2015). Quitting or reducing smoking will
improve the breath of the smoke; it will whiten the teeth of the smoker and will make the smoker
less high and more attentive in activities like class work. Reducing smoking improves the oral

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health of the smoker, and reduces the chances of acquiring skin wrinkles. Quitting smoking also
improves the smoker’s self-esteem and improves the chances of them looking younger in the end
(Mecklenburg, 2014). It is, therefore, essential that my friend stops smoking because it does
more harm than good to the body. The application of the theory in helping to solve the problem
will be applied by use of the following constructs:
The theory is based on the understanding that the person is bound to take certain actions based
on the way they think it will benefit them. For instance, the person will resort to using condoms
when they feel that it will help them avoid certain negative attributes like STD. Other times
people will react according to the positive effects that they think the action will have on them.

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Figure 1 Conceptual model for the expected reactions
The Health Belie model has been applied to a wide range of subjects including Tobacco use, and
it has had tremendous success. The concept has been used for promoting healthy habits,
shunning unhealthy habits and keeping the general population healthy.
Concept Tobacco Smoking awareness Tobacco Prevention efforts
1. Perceived
Susceptibility
Young people believe that too
much tobacco causes
addiction and ultimately death
Young people believe that
they may have been exposed
to diseases that come with
cigarette smoking inhalation
of tobacco
2. Perceived severity Young people believe that the
consequences of tobacco
smoking are enough to make
one want to quit smoking
Young people believe that the
consequences of having
tobacco-related illnesses
without treatment are

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significant enough to want to
quit the habit.
3. Perceived Benefits Young people believe that
shunning from smoking
tobacco will shield them from
the tobacco-related illnesses
like lung cancer.
Young people believe that
ceasing to smoke will help
them prevent secondary and
primary infection of tobacco-
related infections
4. Perceived barriers Youth identify some of the
barriers as being the feeling of
being left out of their peer
groups or looking too soft for
hard stuff like tobacco
Young people identify the
yearning to fit into their peer
groups as the number one
barrier to self-regulation of
taking tobacco.
5. Cues to action Young people receive
incentives and reminders in
the form of awareness
messages of the effects of
tobacco smoke on the body
Youths receive reminders and
incentives in the form of
awareness messages of the
effects of tobacco smoke on
the body
6. Self-Efficacy Confidence in ceasing to
smoke at every urge
Ability to control one's urges

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References
Jarvis, C. (2015). Physical Examination and Health Assessment (Vol. 3). South Carolina:
Elsevier,.
Mecklenburg, R. E. (2014). Tobacco Effects In The Mouth. New York : DIANE Publishing.