Tobacco Use in Community Health Analysis

Tobacco Use in Community Health
Name of Student
Institutional Affiliation
Tobacco Use in Community Health
Introduction
One of the community health issues affecting the present world's population is tobacco use: tobacco, a substance used in the manufacture of cigarettes contributing to a mass global phenomenon. The use of tobacco can be dated centuries back, which world explorers discovered. Christopher Columbus is attributed as being the person to have introduced tobacco in Europe after finding it in Cuba, 1492. According to Alshishtawy (2013), it is estimated that there are about 794 million adults who are using tobacco globally. These tobacco users contribute to 5,884 billion cigarettes being smoked each year, endangering the health of active smokers and passive smokers. Despite most tobacco being consumed in cigarettes, tobacco is also smoked in other products such as water pipes, cigars, cigarillos, and clove cigarettes (kreteks).
Alshishtawy continues to argue that according to studies, tobacco use is one of the leading causes of death despite being preventable. Astonishingly, there are more related deaths to tobacco than the combined number of deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Cigarette manufacturing companies, however, continue to deny the fact that smoking cigarette is detrimental to one's health. Instead, these cigarette companies continue to advertise their products to the public using innuendos such as our products are "lighter" than those of our competitors. The term lighter here implies that the smoke of their tobacco is comfortable for the throat. Therefore, tobacco use is a community health issue in which causes leading to tobacco use, influences, and knowledge gaps need to be investigated.
Causes Leading to Tobacco Use
Various factors are associated with causes and influences linked to tobacco use. The factors related to the cause of tobacco use include economic determinants and psychosocial determinants.
Economic influences
The continued use of tobacco within societies across the US is associated with the tobacco industry's economic support to racial minority communities. The financial support provided by these tobacco industries to ethnic minority groups in the US is enhancing these communities' continued existence. Some of the ways tobacco industries support African American societies include direct employment, contributing to political organizations, supporting civil rights organizations, and offering cultural programs support. In recent developments, tobacco industries across the US have started to provide support for other minority groups such as Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic communities, and American India. Through economic influences discussed above, tobacco companies' continued use due to tobacco industries manufacturing cigarettes.
Psychosocial Determinants
When investigating psychosocial variables in community health, the variable helps explain why people start using tobacco (initiation) or continue using tobacco (maintenance). For example, within the various US, American Indians, and Alaska Natives, tobacco use can be traced ...