How Social and Psychological Factors Influence a Specific Aspect of Coursework

How Social and Psychological Factors Influence a Specific Aspect of Health - Coursework Example This paper illustrates that smoking has been argued to cause health complications which in turn causes serious sociological implications. Sundmacher argues that in the European Union alone, smoking causes over half a million deaths annually. Smoking poses a threat to the health of pregnant women. Although women smokers are likely to quit smoking during pregnancy, the majority go back to in less than one year after giving birth. Elsewhere, evidence gathered from a case-controlled study suggest that smoking could be protective against Alzheimer's disease. Broe continues to argue that smoking has no net gain in the aspect of cognitive functioning. Such an assertion can be because there exist evidence linking smoking as a risk factor for the development of vascular dementia. In addition, smoking has been associated with a prevalence of lower weight. Reduced tobacco usage is undeniably an important public health goal. The reason behind this is, smoking has been strongly related to health complications and premature mortality. On the other hand, smoking cessation has been linked to weight gain. Reduced prevalence of smoking cases has been suggested as one the risk factor associated with obesity. A rational model of addiction developed by Becker and Murphy offers insights on why people engage in potentially addictive behaviors of smoking. Gender is the first social element of choice that affects the health. Gender can be expressed as the social distinctions between men and women. Although they tend to get sick more than men, women have been argued to live on average five years longer compared to men. They are reported to have more non-fatal chronic illness and more acute illness. Women have higher rates of depression, and this exposes them to use more depression medication. Compares to men, women are more likely to develop high blood pressure and kidney complications.