Final Reflection

As I reflect on my time in this course, I only have positive thoughts and comments. I am grateful for the exponential amount of learning that took place. I have gained a better understanding of how to design, implement and evaluate health promotion programs. Additionally, I have learned the importance of utilizing theories, frameworks, and models when developing health promotion programs.

During this course, the greatest discovery for myself came through Assignment two. Creating an infographic was an extremely valuable skill. Through this assignment, I was able to develop clear communication skills to educate target populations. Furthermore, this assignment help reinforce critical thinking skills in identifying areas of need, gathering relevant background information and displaying it in a manner that is eye catching for individuals.

The most powerful learning experience for myself occurred working through the 3 assignments. Utilizing the feedback, I received from Assignment 1, I was able to take a generalized approach to adolescent vaping and focus my topic into a specific target population. Additionally, I was able to develop a much more focused intervention. This translated into a much more polished and focused infographic. Furthermore, I was able to take the feedback from Assignment 2 and utilize it during the final assignment. Instead of relying heavily on the socio-ecological model, I incorporated multiple theories, models and frameworks when developing my own proposed health promotion model. This process was eye-opening, as it highlighted how much I had learned throughout the course and the importance of utilizing multiple concepts when developing effective health promotion strategies.

This journey through this course has been so invaluable. Overall, this course has increased my dedication in utilizing evidence-based theories, models and frameworks when developing health promotion strategies. This course has inspired me to continue to advocate and promote the health and wellbeing of my patients by using health promotion strategies.

Reflecting on My Journey so Far

Exponential amount of learning is what I would describe this course so far. Reflecting on this course, I was really surprised and felt very patriotic learning about the Ottawa Charter. I never knew that the term health promotion was first proposed and originated from Canada. Furthermore, I always saw health promotion and population health as interchangeable terms, but this course has helped me recognize the differences between them and highlight how they can interact with one another through the use of the Population Health Promotion model. Additionally, a lot of the learning that has happen in this course for me has been vastly due to the diverse professional backgrounds of my classmates. There are so many different health professions and viewpoints that are being highlighted in this course. This greatly helps with expanding my knowledge in this course.

As a respiratory therapist, vaping is a health issue that I am extremely concerned about. It has become increasingly common for individuals to vape now. A study by Tehrani et al, (2022) found that globally 23% of men and 11% of females currently vape. Additionally, it has been found that a vast majority of individuals that vape are adolescents and young adults. The Government of Canada (2024) found that 14% of Canadians aged 15 – 19 and 20% of Canadians aged 20 – 24 vape. Vaping has been associated with many adverse health diseases especially respiratory diseases. Vaping has been known to increase the likelihood of many respiratory disease processes like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, E-cigarette Vaping Acute Lung Injury (EVALI), bronchiolitis obliterans and lung cancer (Tehrani et al, 2022). However, many individuals believe that vaping is not harmful and much safer than smoking cigarettes. The spread of health misinformation has drastic increased with the use of social media. People are able to access information quicker and easier now. Consequently, the information being accessed is not always right. This is one of the biggest difficulties that is faced by health promotion.  

Going forward in this course, I hope to learn and utilize different theories and interventions to help implement change in the prevalence of vaping. I specifically want to learn how best to target adolescent vape users and promote vaping cessation strategies that would best resonate with them. I hope that this course and my health promotion project will help translate into something that can be placed into action.

References:

Government of Canada. (2024) About Vaping. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/smoking-tobacco/vaping.html

Tehrani, H., Rajabi, A., Ghelichi-Ghojogh, M., Nejatian, M., & Jafari, A. (2022). The prevalence of electronic cigarettes vaping globally: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Public Health, 80.

Health Misinformation

The use of the internet and social media has made health misinformation is rampant in todays society. People are being misinformed and misled for views. This is evident on TikTok. TikTok is a social media app that has accumulated over 1.1 billion users worldwide since its launch in 2016 (O'Sullivan et al, 2022). These videos are short videos and primarily entertainment based. However, the platform has been increasingly used to spread information about various medical conditions and treatments (O'Sullivan et al, 2022). Consequently, the information shared is not always correct and the spread of misinformation occurs. According to community guidelines published online by TikTok, misinformation is defined as “content that is inaccurate or false”, and the publication of “medical misinformation that can cause harm to an individual's physical health” is prohibited (O'Sullivan et al, 2022). However, many media outlets are very clever in the way they edit TikTok videos. This can be clearly seen in the TikTok made by Itvnews regarding vaping. Vaping is the act of inhaling and exhaling an aerosol produced by a vaping product, such as an electronic cigarette. Vaping involves heating a liquid into an aerosol and does not require burning like a cigarette (Bonner et al, 2021).

Here is the link: https://www.tiktok.com/@itvnews/video/7148870466847984902

Based on the way this TikTok was edited, vaping is touted as a much safer option than smoking. The news anchor highlights that vaping is associated with fewer health risks and lower exposure to hazardous substances compared to smoking. Additionally, they also highlight that scientist recommend using vaping as an alternative to quit smoking. However, the news outlet does not state the name of the study. Although, these claims made by Itvnews are supported by evidence and studies. Hajek et al (2019) found that the use of vaping products is an effective tool to quit smoking and even found that vaping was more effective than other nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs). However, Itvnews presentation of vaping is misleading as they do not paint the full picture. Hajek et al (2019) also found that most people kept vaping after they stopped smoking cigarettes. As a result, these individuals were still being exposed to nicotine and other dangerous chemicals. Furthermore, simply stating that vaping is associated with fewer health risks compared to smoking is misleading. The news outlet fails to highlight all the adverse health effects associated with vaping. As a result, a person may interrupt vaping as a healthier option. Many studies have found adverse health effects in individuals who vape. Studies have shown that vaping increases the risk for adverse brain development, fetal development, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases (Gotts et al, 2019; Pisinger and Dossing, 2014; Tehrani et al, 2022). By not incorporating this in the TikTok, people may believe that vaping does not affect these areas of an individual’s health. Similar to smoking, vaping is associated with many different respiratory disease processes that affect the lungs. Vaping has been known to increase the likelihood of many respiratory disease processes like asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD), E-cigarette Vaping Acute Lung Injury (EVALI) and lung cancer (Tehrani et al, 2022). Additionally, the news outlet highlights that there are less hazardous substances in vaping but does not highlight that many substances found in vapes are very novel and the full extent of these substances are still unknown.  The presence of novel compounds found in vapes such as propylene glycol are not well studied. These novel compounds are not found in cigarettes and have an unknown impact on health (Pisinger and Dossing, 2014). Furthermore, vaping is still very novel and a lot more studies are still needed. Studies have clearly demonstrated a link between vaping and adverse health effects however, vaping is still very novel and the long-term health effects are not fully understood.  The evidence for long-term health effects is currently insufficient and further research needs to be done (Gotts et al., 2019). I believe in this instance, Itvnews should of highlighted that vaping is still not fully understood and more research is needed.  

Social media allows individuals to access massive amounts of information including health information. However, not all of the information found in social media is credible. In this instance, Itvnews shared credible information regarding vaping and smoking but excluded other major information. Exclusion of information is just as detrimental as misinformation especially if social media is the main outlet that an individual utilizes for health information. Social media is a good initial source of information. It can be used to obtain some background but credible sources such as the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, governmental websites and peer reviewed journals. Educating individuals on how to successfully verify and evaluate health information online will help drastically reduce the spread of misinformation (O'Sullivan et al, 2010).  

References:

Bonner, E., Chang, Y., Christie, E., Colvin, V., Cunningham, B., Elson, D., ... & Tanguay, R. L. (2021). The chemistry and toxicology of vaping. Pharmacology & therapeutics,  225, 107837.

O'Sullivan, N. J., Nason, G., Manecksha, R. P., & O'Kelly, F. (2022). The unintentional spread of misinformation on ‘TikTok’; a paediatric urological perspective. Journal of pediatric urology, 18(3), 371-375.

Gotts, J. E., Jordt, S. E., McConnell, R., & Tarran, R. (2019). What are the respiratory effects of e-cigarettes?. bmj, 366.

Hajek, P., Phillips-Waller, A., Przulj, D., Pesola, F., Myers Smith, K., Bisal, N., ... & McRobbie, H. J. (2019). A randomized trial of e-cigarettes versus nicotine-replacement therapy. New England journal of medicine, 380(7), 629-637.

Pisinger, C., & Døssing, M. (2014). A systematic review of health effects of electronic cigarettes. Preventive medicine, 69, 248-260.

Tehrani, H., Rajabi, A., Ghelichi-Ghojogh, M., Nejatian, M., & Jafari, A. (2022). The prevalence of electronic cigarettes vaping globally: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Public Health, 80.