Much behaviour has implications for health and illness; select any one health (or health risk) behaviour and discuss both the implications for health and ways in which such behaviour may be changed

Authors Avatar
AS and A Level Healthcare

Much behaviour has implications for health and illness; select any one health (or health risk) behaviour and discuss both the implications for health and ways in which such behaviour may be changed

Enrolment number                02094290

Course:                        PL3S06 Health Psychology

Lecturer:                        Sue Falkner

Deadline:                        18th May 2007 (resubmission)

Word Count:                        2029

Spell check and grammar        Complete

At the beginning of the century the main causes of mortality and morbidity were infectious diseases, mainly pneumonia and influenza (Gatchel et al 1986).  There has been a shift in the cause of mortality and morbidity to more chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and cancer.  These diseases are strongly affected by the environment in which we live and subsequently the way we chose to behave within the environment.  Gachel et al (1989) suggests that 50% of the ten leading causes of mortality are credited to life styles and habits.  Such habits that impair health are known as behavioural pathogens.   The United States of America has been linked with 350.000 deaths per year from heart disease, chronic lung disease and cancer alone.  It has been reported that smoking has become one of the greatest threats to public health worldwide.

Unhealthy behaviours are persistently resistant to change and therefore have a high relapse rate when the habits are attempted to be terminated.  Intervention schemes have been developed in order to enhance quitting and reduce initiation.  The Learning theory (also known as the gradient of reinforcement) notion is aimed at developing reward and punishment systems; it is linked to immediate reward or punishment of terminating a behaviour which is more effective in the short term than a delayed reward or punishment.  Smoking is a consistent habit of satisfaction and avoidance of withdrawal whereby the immediate needs are satisfied and the withdrawal symptoms avoided, making smoking a difficult habit to quit.

Action on smoking and health is a charity website set up to inform people of the dangers of smoking and provides helpful tips on how to quit.  It also provides staggering statistics on tobacco related illnesses.  They report that from 1998 to 2002 it was estimated that an average of 106,000 people died from smoking related illnesses in the United Kingdom each year. In 2002 it was reported that 364,000 people were admitted into hospital with smoking related diseases alone and 60 million people died worldwide from tobacco related diseases (). Smoking has a high correlation with cancerous illnesses; this could be due to smoking lowering the immune function, which is involved in fighting off cancerous cells.   Foshee et al (2007) also suggests that the majority of smokers started smoking or had tried smoking when they were teenagers, and about a third of teenagers will become smokers as adults.  This may highlight the need to educate young teenagers of the risks of smoking and this early intervention may subsequently reduce the number of adult smokers.

Schoepp (2001) reported on smoking and its subsequent stimulation on the central nervous system and how this affects dopamine levels.  This effect may result in addiction, which is a major contributor to the continued use of nicotine.  Nicotine is a highly addictive drug, it is this, the psychological effects of calming and the addiction of placing the cigarette to the mouth that causes such high addiction and subsequent relapse rates.  Castelao et al (2001) suggests that smokers can control the amount of nicotine they inhale, longer term smokers take deeper inhalations gaining more nicotine into the body and less addicted smokers take shorter more shallow inhalations releasing less nicotine into the body.

Join now!

Etter and Perneger (2000) conducted questionnaires and found that smokers believed it was a fun activity and encouraged sociability and subsequently gave them confidence within the situation and that it has pleasurable and calming affects.  Wiltshire, Amos and Haws (2005) however claim that smoking initiation is strongly associated with peer pressure and acceptability. Whereas Powell and Chaloupka (2005) have shown that parental influence on teenager’s decisions to smoke is of high significance.  The prevalence was higher if they smoke themselves and was followed by a strict upbringing.  This may be a result of the rebelliousness in teenage behaviour (Raby ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Much behaviour has implications for health and illness; select any one health (or health risk) behaviour and discuss both the implications for health and ways in which such behaviour may be changed
Document Details
  • Word Count
    3151
  • Page Count
    11
  • Level
    AS and A Level
  • Subject
    Healthcare
Related Essays
Health Psychology - Describe what psychologists have found out about lifestyles and health behaviour
Health Psychology - Describe what psychologists have found out about lifest...
Unit 27: Challenging Behaviour in Health & Social Care
Unit 27: Challenging Behaviour in Health & Social Care
Compare and contrast any two models of mental health & illness,paying particular attention to the implications of each model for the provision of care.
Compare and contrast any two models of mental health & illness,paying parti...
Risk Health and Safety Management.
Risk Health and Safety Management.