NURS 5050/6050 Section 06, Policy and Advocacy for Improving Population Health
February 8, 2015
Health Advocacy Campaign Development
Living a long, thriving and healthy life is a vision many Americans strive to make a reality. Unfortunately, many are deprived of that dream because of smoking and tobacco use. It is estimated that approximately 16 million Americans suffer from a disease as a result of smoking in addition to the one in five deaths that occur annually from smoking (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). The purpose of this paper is to describe the population affected by smoking, summarize the attributes of two successful health advocacy programs and develop a successful health advocacy campaign for smoking.
Smoking and the Affected Population Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the nation (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). There are many reasons that an individual chooses to partake in tobacco use including stress and peer pressure. In 2012, with an estimated 42.1 million Americans aged 18 years or older, approximately 18% of the adult population was cigarette smokers (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). Aside from adult users, it is estimated that more than 3,200 adolescents smoke their first cigarette on a daily basis (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). According to the 2012 Surgeon General’s Report, approximately 9 out of 10 smokers initiate smoking by the age of 18, and 99% will begin smoking by the age of 26 (Cigarette Smoking, 2014). Many people, regardless of age, race or socioeconomic status, interact daily with a tobacco user. Tobacco users tend to fail to realize that their choices affect not only them but those around them as well. Secondhand smoke exposure contributes to an estimated 41,000 deaths yearly in the United States
