The Relationship of Cigarette Smoking and Lung Cancer - Essay Example

Cigarette smoking and lung cancer and their relationship provide an excellent example to illustrate the epidemiological criteria for establishing whether or not an observed association plays a causal role in the etiology of the disease. Many reports from government organizations support this. In this assignment, the prevalence of this association in a rural population will be examined to develop an innovative prevention program for this rural population.

AssessmentThe basic epidemiologic fact in smoking-associated lung cancer is the temporal association between smoking and the incidence of lung cancer. Therefore the duration of smoking and the age of the population would serve as important parameters of surveillance as well as sources of epidemiologic data. The community can be assessed in terms of mainly these two parameters namely duration of smoking and age of the population. Although these will indicate the causal relationship, the prevention must categorize the factors associated with cigarette smoking and the reasons for their continuity.

An analysis of these factors may reveal variables that may be used for designing a preventive strategy. Gaining support for a prevention program in any community needs awareness of the population as to the need for the prevention program, and to this end, health education programs focused on smoking prevention would serve to achieve cooperation from the population (Smith and Leggat, 2007, 165-181). Nursing research on community nursing is available, and findings from them could guide the nurse to develop a prevention plan.

The rural population has different cultures, different lifestyles, different health habits, and different socioeconomic conditions. Nursing research involving the rural population, specially dedicated to smoking and lung cancer can reveal many factors, such as, an increase in the consumption of cigarettes for about 30 years increases the risk of having lung cancer at a phenomenal rate. If there is any sociocultural factor that could be associated with increased smoking habits those may be revealed through research.

Moreover, evidence from other research may reveal the ways of a preventive program and its application (Lee et al., 2007, 222-228). GoalThe goal of such a program would be to prevent smoking and promote abstinence through awareness and reinforcement and thereby reducing the incidence of lung cancer. Measurable ObjectivesRelative risk is one measurable objective, where the larger the relative risk, the greater the likelihood of a causal association. The decrease in risk with cessation of smoking is another measurable objective.

Planning Epidemiologic studies on the population will be done where these measurable objectives will be assessed. The population, their criteria, and their data about smoking and smoking cessation will be recorded and analyzed. Depending on the analysis, the relative risk and the dose-response relationship will be computed and tabulated. From this data, the most vulnerable population can be pointed out. Then, the most vulnerable population will be subjected to interventions designed particularly for them.

While designing interventions, the preventive program must accommodate education and preventive measures that would be culturally congruent with the community. The cost would be determined based on manpower assessment, cost of the preventive measures, transport, employees for intervention, and data computation. The quality will be maintained through quality assessment in a periodic fashion and through the determination of the correlation between prevention and outcome. If there is a drift, the parameters will be readjusted to generate the expected quality (Smith and Leggat, 2007, 165-181).

The effectiveness of the program would be evaluated epidemiologically through the coherence of the association, the extent of smoking cessation, and the rise in awareness of the population.