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Introduction

This presentation discusses the health promotion for the prevention of secondhand smoke exposure in infants. SHSe is considered among the highest environmental disease burden worldwide owing to the significant threat that it poses to the safety and health of infants. According to World Health Organization (WHO), over 50 percent of children are subjected to secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe) everyday, with higher exposure rates observed in medically-underserved populations (Collins & Ibrahim, 2012).

There exist no safe SHSe leve and regular exposure largely increases the likelihood that kids will initiate smoking themselves (Collins & Ibrahim, 2012). Children’s SHSe is associated with numerous acute illnesses including respiratory infections and otitis, as well as sudden infant death syndrome, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and asthma (Collins & Ibrahim, 2012). Moreover, SHSe negatively impacts children’s percentage body fat, activity levels, and diets, all of which are directly associated with infant development (Collins & Ibrahim, 2012).

Introduction (Continued)

Nurses play a vital role in health promotion (Kemppainen et al., 2013). The significance of nurses in health promotion lies in the fact that they are involved in the provision of information needed to manage and improve health, and development of interventions for addressing health threats (Kemppainen et al., 2013). Reducing and preventing infant’s SHSe is considered a global health priority, and nurses are at the frontline of spearheading health promotion measures aimed at accomplishing this goal.

Considering that infants’ SHSe is influenced by several factors and happens across a range of contexts, any single SHSe-reduction strategy is associated with limited effectiveness (Collins & Ibrahim, 2012). Therefore, nurses should often focus on the incorporation of several interventions for them to effectively reduce and prevent infants’ exposure to secondhand smoke. This presentation discusses an integrated multilevel plan that nurses can employ in achieving effective reduction and prevention of infants against SHSe. This approach focuses on four levels including clinical, community, family, and policy.

Clinical-Level Interventions

Behavioral ecological frameworks offer a model that illustrates how social support of limitations and changes in smoke-free norms or beliefs at level such as community can lead to changes in smoking behavior, norms, and attitudes about smoking at other levels such as the home (Hovell & Hughes, 2009).

Caregivers’ efforts at the level of community can contribute to the bolstering of social norms that reinforce evidence-based consensus or agreement that SHSe is harmful to infants. Thus, nurses should focus on promoting broad shifts in norms that advocate for the reduction of SHSe such as educating individuals and parents about the harms of smoking to infants and the exposure of children to SHS.

Clinical-Level Interventions (Continued)

Nurses should also partake in community-based infant health promotion interventions and encourage parents to engage in such programs (Collins & Ibrahim, 2012). Apart from embracing active approaches at a community level, caregivers should also focus on the employment of broader, more implicit approach in facilitating shifts in beliefs and attitudes towards norms focusing on the reduction of SHEe. For instance, health providers can focus on executing smoke-free media promotions or campaigns, as these measures are considered effective in limiting SHSe and modifying the perceptions of the youth about the use of tobacco.