Research proposal on smoking cessation

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Topic: Research proposal on smoking cessation
Introduction
	The issue of smoking has been considered one of the many challenges affecting both the developed and developing nations. It has been ranked one of the propounding challenges affecting the economic development of countries in the 21st century (Andy et al. 10). Smoking as behaviour can be practised by people of all ages and different walks of life. However, the reason as to why it has raised international concern is the increase in number of young people engaging in smoking behaviour across the globe. Statistics indicate that smoking behaviour is prevalent among the youth who account for more than 60% of most countries population. It has been affirmed that 90% of the youths are below the age of 25 years. It is estimated that about 85% of youths in the middle and tertiary colleges started smoking before they had attained the age of 20 years. It has been established that 45% of them started smoking below the age 15 years, 35% below 13 years and 20% below 12 years respectively (Andy et al. 10). Over the years, the number of youths engaging in smoking behaviour has on the increase thus raising the concern from all involved parties to address the issue before the issue gets out of hand to contain.
	According to the recent report by the National Survey on Drugs Use and Health affirm that more than 3800 youths start smoking before attaining the age of 18 years and this translates to 700,000 smokers per year. In 2009, the report released by National Commission on Drug Free indicated that youths in learning institutions consume more than two billion packets of cigarettes and other tobacco related products annual (Andy et al. 24). In 2010 a study by Department of Control Diseases indicated that more than 75% of smokers preferred to smoke three main brands of cigarettes. These includes; Camel, Marlboro and Newport. For the past two decades, smoking rate among the public has been decreasing steadily following massive public campaigns on the effect of smoking. These preventive initiatives have been organized by non-governmental agencies and governmental organizations thus decreasing the smoking rate by 20%. The decrease in smoking rate among the public has decreasing gradually following the implementation of various measure but it has been counteracted by an increase in smoking among students in high school and tertiary colleges(Smith 14). The trend has continued to increase until today despite the government and other agencies efforts to address the challenge of smoking.
	Smoking behaviour has great impacts on the health of an individual and society at large. This effect has promoted countries across the globe to formulate and implement policies geared towards combating the issue among the youths. Some of the adopted policies includes; enacting laws that prohibits the sale of tobacco products to children below 18 years, imposing restrictive laws on advertisements and placing health warming on packaging materials of tobacco products. These policies have worked to address this challenge to some extend but much need to be done. The main reasons as to why such measures have not effectively combated the challenge of smoking among the youth is because they are not directly linked to the factors that cause smoking and its effects on the people.
	The goal of this piece is to critical investigate the causes of smoking among the youth, its effects and more importantly provide viable recommendations to curb the vice through smoking cessation.

Causes of smoking
	Smoking is not an innate behaviour that one is born with but it is a learned behaviour from the environment. This fact has ruled out the idea that smoking is an attribute of genetics within the family. Studies have shown that there are many reasons that influence individuals to smoke, but the main reasons among youths include the following:
	Peer pressure: The behaviour people exhibit or learn is greatly influenced by their immediate environment and the people they interact with daily. Previous literature postulates that social interactions play a pivotal role in influencing behaviours individuals portray in an event or an action. The bottom line behind this predisposition is the fact that the utility an individual obtains after executing an action is measured by the response of other people in a peer group. This implies that youths engage in deviant behaviours such as smoking so that they can be accepted in peer groups. In order to be fully integrated in such groups, one is supposed to conform to norms and values of the group. It is also assumed that if a given behaviour is common among group members, there is a high probability that one will conform to the same behaviour. This articulates that most youths are influenced through peer pressure to engage in smoking and not through their own choice.

Influence of Media

Media plays a crucial role in facilitat