Smoking Flashcards
Introduction 1
One lifestyle choice that can be blamed for ill health in the population is smoking.
Explain 1
Smoking tobacco is a major factor in causing health inequalities within the population. Smoking addictions have contributed to many illnesses such as cancer, lung disease, as well as premature deaths. It is a well-known fact that those who smoke tobacco or nicotine products will have shorter lives that people that don’t.
Example 1
The significance of smoking on people’s health can be evidenced by a report which states there are 271 deaths per 100,000 population.
Analysis 1
This would suggest that due to smoking being the leading cause of preventable Illnesses and death, it can be argued that smoking must be more significant than other factors in causing health inequalities.
Rebuttal
However, many people argue that alcohol consumption may in fact be more significant than smoking is causing health inequalities in Scotland.
Explain
This is because it increases the risk of suicide. Regular, heavy alcohol consumption can also result in unhealthy weight gain. This means that those who engage in problematic drinking patterns are more likely to suffer from health issues than those who are not. Even drinking small amounts of alcohol increases your cancer risk.
Example
It can clearly be argued that the significance of alcohol consumption on health can be shown by a report in 2021, where there were 20,970 deaths that were related to alcohol in England, equating to a rate of 38.5 per 100,000 population.
Analysis
This shows that because there were 948,312 hospital admissions that were alcohol related under broad definition (20,970 resulting in death), alcohol could arguably be more significant than other factors in causing health inequalities. Majority of alcohol addicts are from deprived areas – 5.6 times higher – causing majority of hospital admissions/death.
Link
Overall, due to the evidence shown smoking is more significant the alcohol consumption when explaining health inequalities. This is because the death rate in Scotland for smoking is 7000 more people than the death rate for alcohol consumption, showing a larger effect and causing more health inequalities.
