Introduction and Literature Search: Smoking Cessation

Smoking Cessation
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Smoking Cessation
Smoking is a harmful habit and practice, relative to the impacts that it has on the respiratory system. According to the CDC, smoking causes more deaths in one year that, illegal drug abuse, HIV, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries and firearm related injuries combined (CDC, 2016). Ideally, cigarette smoking is estimated to cause more than 480,000 deaths every year in the United States alone (CDC, 2016). The impact of the same at the international level is staggering (Jha & Peto, 2014). More than 6 million people die each year from smoking according to the World Health Organization (World Health Organization, 2016). More than 5 million of these deaths, are related to direct smoking, while more than 600,000 are due to second hand smoke (World Health Organization, 2016). There are quite a number of health risks associated with smoking, most of which contribute to the large number of deaths (Fiore et al., 2004). Smoking leads to development of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and coronary heart diseases (The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, 2015). The habits tends to damage the blood vessels as it makes them to become thicker and narrower, making the heart beat faster and rises as a result. It is also common for the smokers to develop blood clots which are associated with stroke (Koop, Richmond, & Steinfeld, 2004). Other than the cardiovascular diseases, smoking is also known to cause respiratory diseases, such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma attacks. It is also related to several cancers, such as to the, bladder, esophagus, liver, stomach, larynx, blood, cervix, colon, kidney, trachea, pancreas and the lungs (CDC, 2016). Other effects include ectopic pregnancies, stillbirths, sudden infant death syndrome, low birth weight, orofacial clefts, low sperm count and cataracts among others ("QuickStats: Number of Deaths from 10 Leading Causes—National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2010", 2013).
In light of the effects that smoking has on one’s health, efforts to quit are quite crucial and the benefits are subtle. According to the CDC, just after one year of quitting the health risks drop sharply. The best approach to assist smokers to quit, is to help them understand the danger of smoking and benefits of quitting (Healton & Nelson, 2004). This is a more practical approach, as they are able to understand the differences between continuing on with the habit and the benefits that they would accrue from quitting. This is also an approach that is more likely to last the smokers in the program for more than six months, other than simply indicating to them the cause and effects of their habits. As such, this research mainly relies on the non-positivist paradigm and specifically the critical theory (Aston, 2016). Ideally, the research is geared towards helping smokers understand the implications of their habits to their health and even to those of others such as standers by and even their children. Additionally, understanding the benefits that accrue from quitting the habit further reinforce the elements of smokers committing to the program for more than six months (Levy, Mabry, Graham, Orl...