Clinical update
Reducing tobacco use ALAMY
Essential facts Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable illness and premature death in the UK, killing more than 100,000 people a year. According to the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), an estimated 207,000 children in the UK start smoking each year.
NICE quality standard: Smoking: reducing tobacco use (March 2015) www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/qs82
What’s new? The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new quality standard on reducing tobacco use. It includes interventions to discourage people from taking up smoking, tobacco-control strategies and smoke-free policies. The standard is aimed at all those involved in protecting health and promoting healthy behaviour among children, young people and adults. It recognises the important role that schools play in helping pupils to understand the harm associated with tobacco products.
Signs/symptoms Smoking contributes to a wide range of diseases including various cancers, respiratory conditions, coronary heart disease and other circulatory problems. Children who smoke are six times more susceptible to coughs and breathing difficulties than non-smokers.
Children become addicted to nicotine quickly and are also likely to continue their habit into adulthood. Around two thirds of everyone who has smoked started before the age of 18, according to NICE, and children whose parents or siblings smoke are themselves three times more likely to smoke, says ASH. The earlier children start a smoking habit that continues
Ellen Nicholson, nurse specialist, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London
NICE quality standard: Smoking cessation: supporting people to stop smoking (August 2013) www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/qs43 into adulthood, the greater the risk they will develop lung cancer or heart disease. Another group at increased risk are those with longstanding mental health problems, who are around twice as likely to smoke as other people. ASH says that of the UK’s ten million smokers, about three million are thought to have a mental disorder. Mortality among those with serious mental illness is substantially higher than the general population, with smoking a contributory factor.
How you can help your patients
Causes/risk factors
Expert comment
Find out more
Making young people aware of the social influences that promote smoking can be effective in preventing them from taking up the habit, says NICE. Pupils should be encouraged to take part in programmes that help them to say no when tobacco is offered, by working on self-esteem, helping them cope with stress and boosting their social and assertiveness skills. Schools, colleges and healthcare settings should not allow smoking in their grounds.
‘Young smokers who have asthma often say that peer pressure is one of the main reasons they started smoking. They are exposed to a variety of influences, including social media, family members and friends. So it is about changing the idea that smoking is acceptable. If smoking is seen as a normal part of life, then young people are more likely to smoke.
Department of Health policy paper: Healthy lives, healthy people: a tobacco control plan for England (March 2011) tinyurl.com/qco7kyk Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists arns.co.uk National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training www.ncsct.co.uk QUIT guides and resources tinyurl.com/lo63vwp Smokefree NHS www.nhs.uk/smokefree
‘Young people may feel invincible, so messages about lung cancer and heart disease often do not resonate with them. Health education needs to focus on the fact that it is okay to be different. Messages should empower young people to stand up, find their own voice and be a role model or trendsetter. School nurses have a major role to play.’
NURSING mayNo 13other :: voluses 29 no 37 :: permission. 2015 17 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 16, 2015. For personal use only. without Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reducing tobacco use ALAMY
Essential facts Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable illness and premature death in the UK, killing more than 100,000 people a year. According to the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), an estimated 207,000 children in the UK start smoking each year.
NICE quality standard: Smoking: reducing tobacco use (March 2015) www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/qs82
What’s new? The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new quality standard on reducing tobacco use. It includes interventions to discourage people from taking up smoking, tobacco-control strategies and smoke-free policies. The standard is aimed at all those involved in protecting health and promoting healthy behaviour among children, young people and adults. It recognises the important role that schools play in helping pupils to understand the harm associated with tobacco products.
Signs/symptoms Smoking contributes to a wide range of diseases including various cancers, respiratory conditions, coronary heart disease and other circulatory problems. Children who smoke are six times more susceptible to coughs and breathing difficulties than non-smokers.
Children become addicted to nicotine quickly and are also likely to continue their habit into adulthood. Around two thirds of everyone who has smoked started before the age of 18, according to NICE, and children whose parents or siblings smoke are themselves three times more likely to smoke, says ASH. The earlier children start a smoking habit that continues
Ellen Nicholson, nurse specialist, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London
NICE quality standard: Smoking cessation: supporting people to stop smoking (August 2013) www.nice.org.uk/ guidance/qs43 into adulthood, the greater the risk they will develop lung cancer or heart disease. Another group at increased risk are those with longstanding mental health problems, who are around twice as likely to smoke as other people. ASH says that of the UK’s ten million smokers, about three million are thought to have a mental disorder. Mortality among those with serious mental illness is substantially higher than the general population, with smoking a contributory factor.
How you can help your patients
Causes/risk factors
Expert comment
Find out more
Making young people aware of the social influences that promote smoking can be effective in preventing them from taking up the habit, says NICE. Pupils should be encouraged to take part in programmes that help them to say no when tobacco is offered, by working on self-esteem, helping them cope with stress and boosting their social and assertiveness skills. Schools, colleges and healthcare settings should not allow smoking in their grounds.
‘Young smokers who have asthma often say that peer pressure is one of the main reasons they started smoking. They are exposed to a variety of influences, including social media, family members and friends. So it is about changing the idea that smoking is acceptable. If smoking is seen as a normal part of life, then young people are more likely to smoke.
Department of Health policy paper: Healthy lives, healthy people: a tobacco control plan for England (March 2011) tinyurl.com/qco7kyk Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists arns.co.uk National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training www.ncsct.co.uk QUIT guides and resources tinyurl.com/lo63vwp Smokefree NHS www.nhs.uk/smokefree
‘Young people may feel invincible, so messages about lung cancer and heart disease often do not resonate with them. Health education needs to focus on the fact that it is okay to be different. Messages should empower young people to stand up, find their own voice and be a role model or trendsetter. School nurses have a major role to play.’
NURSING mayNo 13other :: voluses 29 no 37 :: permission. 2015 17 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 16, 2015. For personal use only. without Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
