The Prevalence and Impact Smoking, Obesity, Cancer and Physical Activity Across the United Kingdom - Essay Example

Public Health Public Health Introduction Novick and Mays (2005), argue that public health is primarily concerned with the population’s health and it is due to this that modern public health policies are formulated with the sole objective of ensuring that the health of all the members of a given community is adequately protected and improved. The decision that individuals make today will eventually have a tremendous impact on their eventual future. This statement is seen to be particularly true in respect to health as the lifestyle that an individual choose to live, can eventually result in their developing a number of diseases (Lenz, 2008). It is important for the public to continuously be sensitized on the impact that some of the common lifestyle choices such as physical activity, smoking, nutrition and diet can have on their health resulting in a higher risk of developing medical conditions such as cancer and obesity (Sattar and Lean, 2007). This paper will present a report analysis on the prevalence and impact Smoking, Obesity, Cancer and Physical activity across the United Kingdom. The immense benefits of a physically active lifestyle have been relatively well document and there currently exists a large amount of evidence that suggests that regular activity is closely related to significantly reduced risk of an individual developing a number of chronic conditions. Physical activity has repeatedly been shown to contribute to a wide range of health benefits and engaging in regular physical activity can have the effect of improving the health outcomes of an individual regardless of whether the individual is able to achieve weight loss (Dugdill, Crone and Murphy, 2009). According to statistics released by the UK Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC, 2014), a study conducted in the UK in 2012 found that an estimated 55% of women and 67% of men aged 16 years and over were able to meet the prescribed recommendations of aerobic activity while 26% of women and 19% of men were classified as being largely inactive. These figures are seen to be similar to those presented by in a 2013 press release by the UK Public Health Minister Anna Soubry. In the press release, pointed out that a quarter of the population are not doing even 30 min of physical activity a week and as such, these individuals are putting their health at risk (Department of Health, 2013). The survey by the HSCIC (2014) also showed that for both sexes the actual proportion of individuals that are able to meet the aerobic activity guidelines tends to generally decrease with age. The survey also showed a clear association between meeting the guidelines for aerobic activity and the individual’s body mass index (BMI) category. In the survey, 75% of men who were not obese or overweight were recorded as having met the guidelines; this is as compared to 59% of obese men and 71% of overweight men. In women, the equivalent figures were recorded at 64%, 48% and 58% respectively (HSCIC, 2014). Engaging in regular physical activity can have the effect of significantly reducing avoidable mortality as well as successfully prevent individuals from developing conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes which are estimated to cost the United Kingdom’s NHS an estimated over £1 billion in England Alone (Department of Health, 2013). There are a number of national policies that have been designed to help in encouraging physical activity among the population, some of these policies include the Healthy weight. Healthy Lives policy that supports the obesity public service agreement (PSA) target, the Change4Life policy which aims to improve the physical activity and diets of young people, and the Choosing activity: a physical activity action plan which aims to promote physical activity for all (Upton and Thirlaway, 2014). Other policies include the children’s plan, the children’s health promotion plan (Nice, 2009). Some of the implemented interventions designed to help encourage individuals across the country to adopt more physically active lifestyles include the announcement by Soubry that local authorities have been given increased and ring-fenced budgets that will help them in successfully tackling public health issues in their local areas. The Youth Sports Trust has also been direct to use the additional £3 million pounds it received to extend the Change4Life School Sports Clubs to those regions and areas that are found to have the highest childhood obesity levels. This will help in successfully building on the successes of the 8,000 clubs that have already been established (Department of Health, 2013). It is important for the UK Government to encourage more people to engage in physical activity across the United Kingdom (Summerfield, 2012). This will be instrumental in helping the government achieve its objective of a healthier and more active population. Programmes such as the Change4Life programme need to be promoted and adopted across the country as they have been proven to be quite effective in encouraging people to engage in more physical activity. Cigarette smoking is considered to be the greatest cause of illness and premature death across the United Kingdom. Every year, smoking is thought to cause about 100,000 deaths across the United Kingdom and about 50% of smokers tend to eventually die as a result of smoking-related diseases (Ben-Shlomo et al., 2013). It has been shown that the younger an individual is when he starts smoking, the higher the likelihood of the individual smoking for longer and dying early from smoking. Most of the smoking related deaths are not quick deaths and smokers can generally expect to suffer through several years of distressing symptoms and illness before they eventually die. Data released by Action on Smoking Organization (ASH) shows that smoking is responsible for causing about 80% of the deaths that result from lung cancer, 17% of those that result from heart disease and an estimated about 80% of those resulting from emphysema and bronchitis. On average cigarette smokers are estimated to die about 10 years younger than nonsmokers (Ash, 2013). According to Munafò (2003), about 10 million adults smoke in Great Britain and this figure accounts for a sixth of the United Kingdom’s total population. In Great Britain, about 19% of adult women and 22% of adult women are recorded as being smokers. Among men, the smoking prevalence is found to be highest in the 25-34 years age group which generally accounts for about 32% of the total male smoking population in the country. Among women, smoking prevalence is found to be highest among individuals aged 20-24 years. This demographic accounts for about 29% of women smokers in the country. According to Ash (2014), in the year 2011, more than 200,000 children aged 11-15 years were inducted into smoking. Although the current prevalence of smoking might be considered to be relatively high, of note is that this is figure is an improvement over the 1974 rates that showed that about 41% of women and 51% of men were categorized as being cigarette smokers (Ghodse, 2002). This figure represented nearly half of the total population. In the 2012-13 financial period, the UK government was able to earn about £12.3 billion in revenue from collecting taxes charged on tobacco products. Tobacco smoke poses a great health risk as it contains over 4,000 different chemical compounds, most of which are harmful. These chemical compounds are present in tobacco smoke in the form of either tiny particles or gases and include cyanide, carbon monoxide, benzene, arsenic, toluene, formaldehyde, benzene and acrolein (Hanson et al., 2009). Smoking can pose a significant number of health risks and challenges that include cancer, bronchitis and emphysema. More than 25% of all cancer deaths are attributed to smoking. Some of these cancers include cancers of the lip, mouth, pancreas, lung, cervix, stomach, bladder, kidney, cervix and throat. Smokers are also more prone to develop facial wrinkles as compared to non-smokers in addition to increased levels of sperm abnormality which might eventually result in impotence (Golden, 2009). Teenage smokers typically tend to experience more cases of asthma and other respiratory symptoms in addition to their also suffering from more cases of poor health. Of note also is that secondhand smoking is responsible for exposing non-smokers to a myriad of health concerns including heart disease and lung cancer in the adult non-smokers. Other health concerns that might result from secondhand smoking also include irritation to the nose, throat and eyes, a generally increased sensitive and significantly reduced functionality among people with asthma and reduced lung function among adults that don’t have any chronic chest problems (Hyde and Setaro, 2006). Secondhand smoking can also pose serious health problems to young children and babies as they will have a greatly increased risk of developing respiratory infections such as chronic coughs, and a frequent occurrence of wheezing, phlegm and chronic coughs. Children also tend to have an increased risk of glue ear and cot death. Statistics estimate that about 600,000 deaths are caused annually as a direct result of secondhand smoking (Reynolds, 2011). Sadly, most of these deaths are reported among children and women. The government has set in place a Reduce Smoking policy that aims to try and reduce the number of smokers across the United Kingdom. England has also published a Tobacco control plan that aims to limit the availability and access to tobacco and tobacco products. A number of interventions have been implemented with the aim of encouraging smokers to drop the harmful habit. Some of these include the banning of Press and television cigarette smoking. Although it is still possible to promote cigarettes through displays in small shops, plans are underway to eventually ban all eye-catching tobacco, and tobacco products displays from all shops in the United Kingdom by 2015 (Bailey, 2014). Another measure that has been taken is the implementation and continuous increasing of tobacco taxes to deter people from smoking due to the high cost of the product. The government also runs smokefree campaigns to help in encouraging people to change and drop the habit of smoking (Ellison and DoH, 2013). The dangers associated with cigarettes smoking cannot possibly be overemphasized. The government needs to adopt more anti-smoking policies and measures to reduce the prevalence of smoking as the habit has been directly associated with a large number of health concerns. In addition to this, more awareness needs to be created over the effects of secondhand smoking as this will help in reducing the large number of deaths that result from this. Over 200 different types of cancers have been identified, and each of these forms of cancer has its own symptoms, causes and treatments (Ewles, 2005). Due to advances in medical technology, early detection systems and treatments, the proportion of people that are able to live longer after being diagnosed with cancer will increase and by 2030, the number of people alive after a time period of more than 5 years from their initial cancer diagnosis will have more than doubled to about 2.7 million (Macmillan, 2014). It is thought that about two million people in the United Kingdom today have been unfortunate enough to have a cancer diagnosis. Of particular concern is that if this number continues to rise by its current rate of over 3% each year, this could eventually result in a situation whereby by 2030, the number of individuals in the UK who will be living with cancer will hit the astronomical figure of four million (Burke, 2013). Cancer Research UK points out there were more than 331,000 people in the UK who were diagnosed with cancer during the year 2011. This figure works out to about 910 people being diagnosed with cancer on a daily basis or someone being diagnosed with cancer every two minutes. There is currently a 1 in 20 risk of women of up to the age of 50 in the UK developing cancer and a 1 in 35 risk among men (CRUK, 2014). A large number of cancers have been linked to lifestyle choice and it is strongly recommended that individuals adopt healthier lifestyle choices to avoid developing some cancers such as malignant melanoma, uterine cancer, oral cancer, as well as kidney and liver cancers (Ko, et al., 2008). According to Cancer Research UK, Cancer has been identified as the leading fear of death among members of the British public. The fear of cancer is ranked well ahead of other fears such as knife crime, the fear of debt, the fear of losing a job as well as the fear of Alzheimer’s disease (CRUK, 2014). According to Ellison and DoH (2013b), the UK Government hopes to match the average European cancer survival rate by 2014. This will have the effect of saving over 5,000 extra lives each year. To achieve this objective, the government in 2011 published the national Improving Outcomes: a strategy for cancer strategy. The strategy outlines how the government hopes to be able to raise awareness of cancer symptoms in addition to how it intends to invest £750 million over 5 years with the aim of supporting the early diagnosis of the condition and significantly improve the current access to its treatment and testing. A number of successful interventions have been implemented to help in stimulating a change in lifestyle behavior and aid people in reducing the probability of developing cancer. and DoH (2013b) point out that the government is using its Be Clear on Cancer campaign to help in making people aware of cancer. Another measure that has also been used is the cancer screening campaign that screen for cervical cancer, breast cancer and bowel cancer. Since the start of this screening programme in 2006, the programme is responsible for the identification of an estimated over 15,000 cancers across the United Kingdom. The programme hopes to extend its bowel screening programme by 2016 and in the process save about 3,000 lives each year. The United Kingdom currently has a lower cancer survival rate as compared to other European countries (Spiers, 2008). There exists a relatively strong link between cancer and the lifestyle choices that are made by individuals. The early detection of cancer has been shown to be a critical factor in the successful treatment of the condition. To this end, the government’s screening programme needs to be intensified to ensure that the lives of more people within the UK continue to be saved. According to a report released by the WHO, rapid changes in lifestyles and diets that have come about as a result of urbanization, industrialization and globalization and economic development have had a significant impact on the nutrition and health status of populations and this is particularly so in developing countries and in countries undergoing transition (WHO, 2003). The standards of living have largely improved, the diversity and availability of food has expanded and proper access to health services has expanded, there have however been a number of negative health consequences resulting from inappropriate dietary patterns. These have resulted in an increase in diet-related chronic diseases. A report released by the National Obesity Forum points out that research conducted by the HSCIC showed that there was a rather sharp increase in the number of people with obesity during the period spanning from 1993 through to 2011. According to statistics presented by the HSCIC 31% of boys and 28% girls whose ages ranged between 2-15 years, were classified as either being obese or overweight. The figures released by the HSCIC are similar to those released by the Health Survey for England which are noted to suggest that 26.1% of adults aged 16 years and are currently classified as obese due to poor nutrition and diet (Nof, 2014). The government has been largely able to implement a number of policies and programmes designed to try and reverse the worrying trend. Some of these policies and programmes include the Change4Life Programme that aims to provide people with sufficient advice on the importance of having healthy nutritious diets and engaging in physical activity (Gillam, 2012). To help in tackling the problem of diet, nutrition and obesity in the UK, a number of interventions have been developed to help people to make better lifestyle choices and adopt better diets with more nutritious food options. One of these is that the government has improved the labeling on drinks and foods to easier for people to make healthy choices during the purchase of food. Another key incentive is the Public Health Responsibility Deal that collects pledges that businesses are encouraged to sign up to. Some of the objectives of this deal include encouraging businesses to reduce certain ingredients such as fats and salts that can have adverse effects on people if consumed, encouraging people to consume more vegetables and fruits as well as putting calorie information on restaurant and café menus (Ellison and Doh, 2013c). The increased consumption of energy-dense diets that are high in saturated fat and unrefined carbohydrates, coupled with sedentary lifestyles is seen to be responsible for the increasing number of people in the United Kingdom that are now classified as obese or overweight. People need to be encouraged to adopt healthier diets and consume more nutritious foods to ensure that they do not develop obesity or become overweight. Conclusion The lifestyle choices that have been adopted by a significant number of individuals across the United Kingdom such as smoking, insufficient physical activity as well as poor nutrition and diets are seen to be responsible for the widespread prevalence of some health conditions such as cancer and obesity. Although the UK Government has been able to formulate and implement a number of policies such as, the Change4Life programme and the national Improving Outcomes: a strategy for cancer strategy that have been carefully designed to help people in making better lifestyle changes, there is still need for improvement and the creation of better awareness if the current trend is to eventually be reversed. Bibliography Ash, (2013). Smoking and Disease. 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