The Relationship Between Receptivity to Media Models of Smoking and Nicotine Dependence Among South African Adolescents

An exploratory study of the socio-cultural risk influences for cigarette smoking among Southern Nigerian youth

Background

The increase in smoking prevalence in developing countries including Nigeria has been mainly blamed on the aggressive marketing strategies of big tobacco companies. There is a paucity of research on other socio-cultural risk factors for smoking among the youth. The main objective of this study is to explore and describe socio-cultural risk factors influencing cigarette smoking among the youth in Southern Nigeria.

Methods

A total of 27 respondents (5 community leaders, 4 political analysts and 18 young cigarette smokers) were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data.

Results

Social-cultural practices fuelling early usage and exposure of children to cigarettes and the promotional activities of tobacco companies were identified as possible factors influencing youth’s smoking behaviour in Southern Nigeria.

Conclusion

Tobacco control policies should include cultural interventions to modify current traditional practices and social norms which fuel the use of tobacco in the society. Such interventions must target specific groups, subpopulations and subcultures more exposed to the cultural risk influences for smoking.

Addiction as a systems failure: focus on adolescence and smoking

OBJECTIVE

Scientific advances in the field of addiction have forever debunked the notion that addiction reflects a character flaw under voluntary control, demonstrating instead that it is a bona fide disease of the brain. The aim of this review is to go beyond this consensus understanding and explore the most current evidence regarding the vast number of genetic, developmental, and environmental factors whose complex interactions modulate addiction risk and trajectory.

METHOD

Focusing on childhood and adolescent smoking as a paradigm, we review the important risk factors for the development of addictions, starting at the level of genetics and closing with a focus on sociocultural and policy factors.

RESULTS

A critical review of the pertinent literature provides a detailed view of the cumulative power of risk and protection factors across different phenomenological levels to modulate the risk of undesirable outcomes, particularly for young people. The result represents a compelling argument for the need to engage in comprehensive, multilevel approaches to promoting health.

CONCLUSIONS

Today, the field of medicine understands more about disease than about health; however it need not be that way. The view of drug addiction as a systems failure should help refocus our general approach to developing dynamic models and early comprehensive interventions that optimize the ways in which we prevent and treat a complex, developmental disorder such as drug addiction.