Week 5: Finishing Research
March 30, 2024
Welcome to my Week 5 Senior Project blog! In my last blog post, I stated that I would discuss factors of stress, anxiety, and depression for my final age group, people who are 60+. I finished off last week by taking a look at which age groups most commonly use certain types of tobacco products. This week, I finished researching the correlation between mental health and tobacco product usage.
Factors of stress, anxiety, depression in people over 60:
For people who are 60+, a lot of stress can come from changes that they have to learn to adjust to. For example, some of them might have to look for senior housing, some might have to learn how to live at home alone, and some might have to adjust to the new technology that is becoming more prominent in our world. Some other factors of stress include chronic illness, loss, grief, loneliness and boredom, finances, and major life changes such as retirement. Stress has a large impact on this age group because it causes inflammation and health problems, reduces the effectiveness of vaccines, and accelerates aging. Factors of depression for this age group are medical conditions, genetics, stress, sleeping problems, loneliness and boredom, a lack of exercise or physical activity, an inability to complete daily activities, and alcohol use. People in this age group are not as likely to experience depression as those younger than them. Factors of anxiety include financial issues, health problems, immobility, chronic pain, dementia, loneliness and isolation, a lack of independence, end-of-life planning, grief, loss, trauma, and stress.
Age groups that most commonly use certain types of tobacco products:
Among adults, those aged 25-44 are more likely to use any type of tobacco product, followed by 45-64 year-olds, then 18-24 year-olds, and finally those aged 65+. Cigarettes are most commonly used in 45-64 year-olds and e-cigarettes are most common in teens, followed by adults aged 18-24. Cigars are most commonly used among those who are 25-44 years old, smokeless tobacco is most common in those aged 45-64, and nicotine pouches are mostly used by teens and young adults. Pipes are most common in 25-44 year-olds, and adults aged 18-24 years make up 66% of daily/weekly hookah users.
Correlation between mental health and tobacco product usage:
As of 2021, around 18.7%, or 46 million, of Americans were current users of a tobacco product. In 2019, the percentage of U.S. adults who had smoked cigarettes in the past month was 1.8 times higher for people with mental illnesses than for people without mental illnesses. Around 70-85% of people with schizophrenia and around 50-70% of people with bipolar disorder are smokers. Around 25% of U.S. adults have some form of mental illness or substance use disorder, and they smoke around 40% of all cigarettes smoked by adults. The data shows that a lot of people with mental illnesses use tobacco products because they believe it helps with their illnesses, but studies have actually shown that quitting has a positive effect on mental health. A few months after people stop smoking, their anxiety and depression levels are generally lower than they were while smoking.
People with mental illnesses are especially vulnerable to tobacco products because of the presence of nicotine. This addictive chemical temporarily reduces the symptoms of mental illnesses such as poor concentration, bad mood, and stress. This can lead people to believe that tobacco products are helping with their mental illness, when in reality, the products only temporarily relieve the symptoms. It is also harder for people with mental illnesses to quit tobacco usage because withdrawal can lead to things such as an increased heart rate, which could trigger a panic attack. Because a large number of people with mental illnesses are of a low socioeconomic status, they are also less likely to have access to medical care and resources that could help them quit smoking. So while a lot of people do use tobacco products to deal with mental illnesses, the products only make the illnesses worse.
I’ve really enjoyed researching for the past few weeks, and I can’t wait to put all my information into my posters. I will end this week by researching how to make informational campaigns for each of the age groups, and next week I will begin designing! Thanks for reading!
Sources:
https://www.ncoa.org/article/stress-and-how-to-reduce-it-a-guide-for-older-adults
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/mental-and-emotional-health/depression-and-older-adults
https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/what-to-know-about-anxiety-in-older-adults
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9322506/
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db475.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10168602/
https://academic.oup.com/ntr/article/20/6/731/3064155
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/06/smoking
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