Further research is needed to determine the most effective models of NHS treatment for smoking cessation and the efficacy of those models with subgroups. Factors such as gender, age, socio-economic status and ethnicity appear to influence outcomes, but a current lack of diversity-specific analysis of results makes it impossible to ascertain the differential impact of intervention types on particular subpopulations.
Over the past decade, the strategy of 'denormalising' tobacco use has become one of the cornerstones of the global tobacco control movement. Although tobacco denormalisation policies primarily affect people on the lowest rungs of the social ladder, few qualitative studies have explicitly set out to explore how smokers have experienced and responded to these legislative and social changes in attitudes towards tobacco use. Drawing on a qualitative study of interviews with 25 current and ex-smokers living in Vancouver, Canada, this paper examines the ways they interpret and respond to the new socio-political environment in which they must manage the increasingly problematised practice of tobacco smoking. Overall, while not opposed to smoking restrictions per se, study participants felt that recent legislation, particularly efforts to prohibit smoking in a variety of outdoor settings, was overly restrictive and that all public space had increasingly been 'claimed' by non-smokers. Also apparent from participants' accounts was the high degree of stigma attached to smoking. However, although the 'denormalisation' environment had encouraged several participants to quit smoking, the majority continued to smoke, raising ethical and practical questions about the value of denormalisation strategies as a way of reducing smokingrelated mortality and morbidity.
As numerous scholars have noted, cancer survivorship is often represented in popular discourse as providing an opportunity for a physical, emotional, and spiritual makeover. However, this idea that cancer enables the self to be remade on all levels is also increasingly evoked in the field of psychosocial oncology. Exploring cancer survivorship as a biopolitical phenomenon, I focus on two concepts that have become central to understandings of the disease: the “teachable moment” and “post-traumatic growth.” Drawing primarily on representations of cancer survivorship in the clinical literature, I suggest that cancer is increasingly seen to present a unique opportunity to catalyze the patient’s physical and psychological development. In this framework, the patient can no longer be relied upon to transform him or herself: this change must be externally driven, with clinicians taking advantage of the trauma that cancer entails to kick-start the patient into action. Broadening my analysis to the concepts of “trauma” and “development” writ large, I go on to suggest that survivorship discourse seems to partake of a larger and relatively recent meta-narrative about development—both individual and societal—and the positive opportunity that trauma is seen to present to stimulate reconstruction on a grand scale.
The objective of this study was to study differently composed cancer support groups to generate insights into what groups are attractive to the widest range of participants, and how they might be best structured and composed. This study applied a qualitative design utilizing participant observation at three cancer support groups (a group for women with metastatic cancer, a colorectal cancer support group, and a group for Chinese cancer patients) and in-depth interviews (N = 23) with group members as the primary data collection methods. Despite the diverse composition of the groups, their perceived benefits were similar, and informants highlighted the information, acceptance, and understanding they received in the support group environment. However, gender and cultural differences were found in attendance patterns and the desired content of group meetings. Importantly, participants' motivations for attending cancer support groups also changed as they moved through the treatment trajectory: over time the need for information was at least partially replaced by a need for support and understanding. This study supports prior research findings that there is no ideal support group, nor is there a "magical formula" for attracting and retaining a diverse audience. However, including an educational component in support groups may increase the participation of currently underrepresented populations such as men and patients from culturally diverse backgrounds.
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