Those who are from low social classes again may not be aware of the outcomes and preventions of illnesses such as HIV and other STD’s as they may not be able to get as educated as those who live in privileged areas. There parents may not be as educated as well therefore may not provide their children on such information that is important for them to know as they will not know themselves.
Some people might be aware of the information on HIV but maybe pressured into doing such things such as injecting used needles and having unprotected sex. They maybe pressured by friends or the society as they may fear of being isolated. Their popularity at the time may mean more to them than their whole life ahead. Some may have dysfunctional belief as they may believe if nothing happened to another individual who has already done it then it wont happen to them either.
I think it is mostly the individual’s lifestyle choices that ruin their life as everyone is unique and they follow whatever they think is right or wrong. No one can influence their choice as they do whatever they feel they should do.
Strategies to help prevent Lung Cancer
Local strategies to help prevent Lung Cancer
There are a number of different ways to help prevent Lung Cancer from occurring. In schools children at young ages have citizenship lesson, this involves them learning about a number of different issues such as drug use and smoking. These are factors that can affect an individual’s health and future. They are given this education so they have a deeper understating of the harmful factors that can influence their health and so they are aware of the outcomes and stay away from substances. The reason they are taught about this at a young age is because as they grow older they will be more aware of the risks and outcomes of these dangerous substances and may try to stay away. I think it is a good idea providing children with education that can make them more aware of their health at a young age and will be aware of the risks and outcomes of any dangerous substances so may not want to go towards these substances as they grow older. It also allows them to understand different factors on how they can prevent themselves from getting Cancer such as Lung cancer which most of these drugs can lead to.
There are a number of different websites that can give individuals masses of knowledge on how to prevent themselves from getting cancer such as Lung cancer. As some websites can be fake and provide the individual with incorrect information that is the reason why I think the NHS website is a really good website to research any diseases or cancer that you would like to know about as this website is more reliable and accurate to trust as it is made by the NHS. The NHS provides information on more than one illness and cancer so it is a good website to research a disease or cancer on.
Some adults or individuals maybe illiterate and may not be able to research on the internet as they may not know how to use it. Those who are illiterate, a beneficial way for them to obtain knowledge and information on lung cancer is to ring up the NHS direct line as they are there to help and provide people with knowledge on health. Individuals who may be illiterate can also ask their local GP or nurse about information on Lung cancer as they will be happy to help and can get a interpreter for those who do not understand the English.
Local clinics and Local GP practices have leaflets and booklets regarding different illnesses for individual to take home and read. There are also translated booklets and leaflets in a number of different languages made for those individuals who cannot read English again regarding different illnesses. For those who are illiterate could ask the nurse at the clinic to explain to them about a certain illnesses are the nurse will be able to provide them with more information.
There are also rehabilitation centre’s made for those who want to quit smoking or taking drugs. These services help individuals who smoke and take drugs to quit as they try and keep them away from these substances, these centres can help prevent an individual from getting Lung cancer.
There are also a number of treatments that can help an individual to quit smoking and taking drugs as these are the main factors that lead an individual to having Lung cancer. These treatments you can buy from any pharmacy or prescribe them from you GP such as nicotine patches and chewing gum they help an individual to quit smoking gradually.
Again I think using the internet can be a very useful and easy way to get hold of information on Lung cancer, as it easy to access and can provide you with a load of information in which you can access at your own home. The least effective strategy to prevent Lung cancer I think will have to be the treatment that is provided to quit smoking such as the nicotine patches and chewing gum. The reason I think this is because my brother is a long time smoker and he decided to quit last year by taking the treatments which the doctor had provided him with, which was the nicotine patches and chewing gum and he had been taking them for over 2 to 3 months and said he didn’t find them helpful or effective at all and now still is a heavy smoker.
These are some of the ways individuals could educate themselves on Lung cancer and so have the knowledge on how to prevent it from happening.
Personal lifestyle choices in the prevention of Lung Cancer
Personal lifestyle choices can affect prevention of Lung cancer. For an example a persons social situation can affect the prevention of Lung cancer, like those who are born and bred in deprived areas and start socialising with uneducated groups of people who smoke and do drug use. This can influence the individual to have negative reinforcement from them as they think they are getting a pleasurable time for them lifestyle they are living. This could lead the individual to follow them and start smoking and taking drugs just like them.
Parents from low social class may smoke to avoid stress as they may experience a lot of stress due to their job, financial reason or because of their living conditions. As the Acheson report suggests that those in low social economic classes are more likely to have poor health and are more likely to live in deprived areas. This shows that those who live in deprived areas and are from low social classes are more likely to smoke due to the bad company and stress they experience. The report also suggests that those in higher social classes are more likely to have better health, this shows that they are less likely to smoke. The reason I think this is because they have better and quality education whereas those in deprived areas are not as educated as much. Those in lower social classes also have groups of gangs and bad company who lead other individuals to be like them in order to make other like themselves. I think most individuals get peer pressured into doing these bad habits such as smoking and drug use so they can be part of the group and look cool and become more popular.
I think those who live in deprived areas are more likely to experience Lung cancer as they tend to smoke more, I think the reason for this is because they cone form low backgrounds and so not receive the same level of education as those in privileged areas.
Government
HIV and AIDS
Looking at the health profile of England and the health of the nation, there didn’t seem to be any information on HIV or any other sexually transmitted diseases (STD’S). However they did seem to have information on smoking therefore I have included this information and research below.
Smoking
Looking at the health profile of England 2006 for smoking, I can see that it suggests that smoking is higher among manual workers than professionals. This shows that prevalence of smoking in the adult population has fallen markedly since the late 1970s, with the percentage of men who smoke remaining higher than that for women. There is a strong and persistent socio-economic gradient.
The Health Profile of England also makes clear some of the targets and points that have been set out by the government to help reduce the number of people who smoke and to help protect people from secondhand smoke, I will now include these in my assignment and then analyse.
Targets
The key target for smoking is that set out in the Public Service Agreements (PSA) published in July 2004. The PSA includes the target:
To reduce adults smoking rates to 21% or less by 2010, with a baseline year of 2002, with a reduction in prevalence among routine and manual groups to 26% or less.
There are two further smoking prevalence targets from the White Paper Smoking Kills.
- To reduce smoking among children from 13% to 9% or less by the year 2010; with a fall to 11% by the year 2005.
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To reduce the percentage of women who smoke during pregnancy from 23% to 15% by the year 2010; with a fall to 18% by the year 2005.
The Tobacco Programme supports the HM Revenue and Customs PSA target to reduce the illicit market share for cigarettes to no more than 13% by 2007/08.
Key Points
Progress towards targets
Overall smoking in England has decreased from:
– 28% of adults in 1998 to 25% in 2004
- 13% in 1998 to 9% in 2005 for children aged 11 to 15 years
- 33% in 2001 to 31% in 2004 among adults in routine and manual groups.
- In 2005, 17% of mothers smoked throughout pregnancy.
- Adult smoking rates in England are the lowest on record, and indicate that the Government is on track to meet the overall target of 21% smoking prevalence in 2010.
- However, routine and manual groups need special focus, as prevalence in these groups is not coming down as fast. In 2004, 25% of all adults smoked in England, rising to 31% for routine and manual groups, with only 18% smoking in the managerial and professional group (see Chart 13b on page 54).
- A higher proportion of girls aged 11 to 15 years smoke than boys. For 16 to 19 year olds, this difference is less pronounced and amongst 20 to 24 year olds in the most recent years, a greater proportion of men than women smoke. The proportion of people smoking in these age groups is generally lower in 2004 than at the start of the decade.
General points
- Smoking rates are highest now in adults in their 20s and early 30s.
- The Health Development Agency estimate that between 1998 and 2002 the number of smoking attributable deaths in England was, on average, 86,500 for each year (see Chart 19a on page 57).
- Around 10 million adults in England smoke.
- Some 51% of people say their workplace is completely smoke free. This is skewed towards managerial and professional groups being more likely to work in smoke free environments than routine and manual groups. All workplaces will be smoke free by 2007.
- Both cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco (HRT) are liable for tobacco duty; however, in 2003–04, 16% of cigarettes were purchased illicitly, for example by smuggling the cigarettes into the country without paying such duty. Also, the estimated illicit market share of HRT was 55% in 2003-04.
Evaluation
I think that there is a strong link between cigarette smoking and socio-economic group, as smoking has been identified as the single biggest cause of inequality in death rates between rich and poor in the UK. Statistics show smoking accounts for over half of the difference in risk of premature death between social classes. I think this maybe due to the lifestyle of the individual, for an example if they were living in a deprived area and had a low social class job, they are most likely to smoke as they may experience financial problems, which could lead to stress and the answer which most people think to avoid stress is to smoke.
Statistics also show that death rates from tobacco are two to three times higher among disadvantaged social groups than among the better off. This again shows that those who are disadvantaged are more likely to go into drugs and smoking, things that cause them self harm and damage to their own health. This maybe because they are not aware of the consequences and outcomes, therefore may not be as educated as those who live in privileged areas. I still think the main reason why those who are disadvantaged tend to smoke more than those who are advantaged is because of their social class and the environment they live in as they are more likely to stress and may have a number of different environmental and lifestyle problems such as financial problems, housing problems and so on. These problems can have a great affect in an individual’s life and can influence them to smoke as that is the only thing they can probably think of at the time as it consoles them at moment of time.
Researching I came to know that Long-term smokers bear the heaviest burden of death and disease related to their smoking. Long term smokers are disproportionately drawn from lower socio-economic groups. People in poorer social groups who smoke, start smoking at an earlier age: of those in managerial and professional households, 31% started smoking before they were 16, compared with 45% of those in routine and manual households. This shows that those in deprived areas tend to smoke more at young ages than those who live in privileged areas. This shows that individuals those who live in deprived areas may not get the quality education than those who live in privileged areas. They may also be influenced by their peer groups, therefore start to smoke to look cool as they may feel those who smoke achieve a pleasurable outcome, but not knowing the outcomes of the particular issue. I think it is important for the government to help give better education on drugs and smoking to those who do not receive quality education at a young age in order for them to have better knowledge on the related diseases and outcomes. I think this way the pupils will be aware of the outcomes and there will be less smoking related diseases and deaths.
I think the targets that the government has set out are very successful and seem to be working effectively. I can see that their have been major improvements over the past few years in the way they have set them out as they seem to be working efficiently. I think the government is doing a good job in helping reduce smoking in order to prevent people to try harder to meet them as they know what the government wants to expect I think this encourages the public to try to set out targets for people t5o follow as this helps the public to acknowledge what is expected by them and on they can meet the expectations.
Disadvantages and problems
I will now list some of the disadvantages and problems which the NHS could experience while keeping up with their targets to help prevent HIV and Lung cancer.
- The cost of keeping strategies going each year can be a problem for the NHS as each year they will have to spend a large amount of money to prevent people from receiving Lung cancer and HIV, if they do not keep up more patients may start coming in. the service could also lose their quality of care and people may start to consider them as an unstructured service.
- The NHS and other care organisations will also need to spend large amounts of money on staff and resources this could again make it hard for the government to keep up with the costs each year as they will have to spend large amounts of money on resources, staff and etc… it may make it harder for them to spend money and keep up with other illnesses such as Diabetes, Tuberculosis (TB) and etc… If they do not keep up with other illnesses patients may start complaining and consider the NHS as being unfair and inconsistent.
- The NHS also need to work harder on planning out different methods such as advertisements, leaflets, centers and etc… to help build the publics knowledge on such illnesses, so they are aware of the fact how important it is for them to prevent themselves from these illnesses. If they do not provide the public with this knowledge on such illnesses and show them how important it is for them to prevent these illnesses, no one would care about preventing themselves form obtaining such illnesses as they won’t know much about the affects and outcomes of the illnesses. Furthermore the NHS resources and money that they have spent may go to waste as people will not be bothered in preventing themselves from experiencing such illnesses.
