Free Nursing Dissertations - Discuss The Use Of Health Psychology To Make Sense Of The Behaviour Of
Discuss the use of health psychology to make sense of the behaviour of
smoking during pregnancy.
Use identified theories or models from literature and consider what light these
throw on the situation.
Smoking is attributed as a cause of around 100,000 or close to 20% of all deaths in the UK with lung cancer as the biggest killer at 40,000 (Baggot, 2004:15). Morbidity from smoking is seen as causing over 250,000 hospital admissions each year due to other chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, respiratory infections and lung disease which are associated with the habit, (Department of Health, 2001). Similarly passive smoking is seen as a related factor in many diseases. Due to the low rates of survival from smoking related diseases prevention has been the object of health strategies related to smoking.
While smoking generally is linked to a number of diseases smoking during pregnancy has been associated with risk not only for expectant mothers but with increased health risks also for the unborn infant. A range of research has demonstrated the wide number of risks and disorders accompanying women who smoke while pregnant.
The range of disorders associated with smoking and pregnancy are wide. Smoking has been associated with the failure of oral contraceptives. It is said to double the chances of spontaneous abortion (Nusbaum et al, 2000). Smoking during pregnancy is also associated with neo-natal weight problems and has been linked with increased chance of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Valanis et al, 2001, Pomerleau, Brouwer and Jones, 2000).
Each of these elements alone are diseases which most pregnant women have fears about and wish to avoid, including amongst those women who smoke and while many are able to quit more do not quit successfully or not at all (Bane, Ruggiero, Dryfuss and Rossi, 1999). Numerous public awareness and public health campaigns have been conducted outlining the general medical risks associated with smoking and individual campaigns about the dangers of smoking while pregnant have also been conducted, yet even with these campaigns smoking rates remain high as well as the incidence of smoking related diseases (Boreham and Shaw, 2000).
The fact that smoking cessation strategies for woman have mostly been less than wholly successful from the research with both low take up rates for cessation and high recidivist rates for smokers is an issue of grave concern, (Secker-Walker et al, 1998). It highlights inadequacies within clinical practice when a broader view of the influences on behaviour in relation to disease and illness is not considered. As such despite statistics, medical advice and evidence to the detrimental effects of smoking during pregnancy it remains a feature and a problem of natal and maternal health.
