Frameworks,leadership within nursing,NHS and schoolnursing

In Focus : Reflecting on Smoking Cessation among Adolescents

Despite efforts to reduce smoking , there are still 12 million adult cigarette smokers in Great Britain and another 2 .3 million who smoke pipes and /or cigars . Smoking is still one of the leading causes of death in the UK , resulting in 114 ,000 deaths per year , accounting for at least one-fifth of all deaths in UK (Peto R . et al , 2004

Working further on the vision of assisting young adults quit smoking in UK , this would first present the key issues and relevant social [banner_entry_middle]

br factors luring young adults into smoking at a very early age . The would then discuss the need to address and to respond to the call of helping young adults cope tobacco addiction and assisting them maintains a smoke-free lifestyle

According to the published report of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH last March 2006 , the 20-24 age bracket has the highest number of men and women smokers , thereafter older age group tend to progressively have fewer smokers (Action on Smoking and Health , 2006 . The reason is that older age groups are more likely to have stopped smoking (Table 1

Table 1 . Prevalence of cigarette smoking by age – percentage of adult population (Adapted from Smoking statistics : Who smokes and how much (Action on Smoking and Health , 2006 Table 1 . Prevalence of cigarette smoking by age – percentage of adult population (Adapted from Smoking statistics : Who smokes and how much (Action on Smoking and Health , 2006

age 16-19 age 20-24 Age 25-34 age 35-49 age 50-59 age 60

1978 34 44 45 45 45 30

1988 28 37 36 36 33 23

1998 31 40 35 30 27 16

2000 29 35 35 29 27 16

2004 24 32 31 29 24 14 In addition , the report also includes children who smoke entering secondary school in UK . The report shows that very few students smoke when they start secondary school however , the likelihood of smoking increases with age . By age 15 , 21 percent of the students are regular smokers

In a news article published by BBC World in September 11 , 2000 , smoking can be more addictive than what was originally thought . The researcher ‘s findings show that people can be addicted to nicotine early on . A survey of 700 children was conducted and the researchers have found out that children are more prone to nicotine addiction than in any other age group . In fact , many exhibited signs of nicotine addiction and dependence in their survey . While diseases such as lung cancer may not set-in at their early age , the bigger risk is that the likelihood for these teens to quit when they are in their 30s or in their later years is much lower

The increase in smoking prevalence among the young adults can be attributed to the marketing strategy of tobacco companies (Blach , 2000 To further explain this strategy , the marketing approach in general divides the potential audience into various segments in to choose which segment… [banner_entry_footer]