Abstract
Drinking alcohol is the main risk factor causing health problems, especially for old people. In the United States, cirrhosis is a health issue that is mostly caused by drinking alcohol. However, it is hard to stop drinking alcohol as it causes old people addicted to it and they cannot escape from it. The interventions that will be addressed are television, the Internet, and social campaigns using social psychological theories and concepts such as the elaboration likelihood model, vividness effect, and fear appeal. The purpose of proposing the interventions is to deliver a lesson to old adults that they can lose a precious life from drinking alcohol, so they should get rid of bad health habits. By integrating social psychological theories and social media, old people will be able to maximize their perception of alcohol. As a result of proposing the interventions, the seriousness of cirrhosis in the United States will be reduced.
Prevent cirrhosis in older people by promoting a decrease in drinking alcohol.
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Introduction
Even though numerous old people perceive drinking alcohol as causing a serious health matter which is cirrhosis, many old adults do not stop drinking alcohol because they are already addicted to it. The reason why people find alcohol is to forget about things that they regret and have a hard time with. If people continue to drink alcohol, they get many bad effects from it, including anxiety and depression. Because old people have weak physical health and psychological conditions, it should be the old adults who care the most about health among young, middle, and old people.
By continuously drinking alcohol, old people especially men are likely to get cirrhosis. The cirrhosis is a chronic liver disease which makes it perpetually damaged by inevitable scarring. There are several symptoms of cirrhosis. First, if people have cirrhosis, they might feel fluid in the abdomen which is called ascites. In case of not getting treated as soon as they feel uncomfortable about their stomach, it can cause organs damaged and possibly lead to death. The second symptom is jaundice. If red blood gets disrupted, the body produces bilirubin. When the liver no longer functions properly, the liver is filled with bilirubin. If an excessive amount of jaundice happens, it can turn their skin to yellow. The best way to recover from jaundice is to stop consuming alcohol. Lastly, it is gynecomastia, which is the abnormal enlargement of men’s breasts due to hormone imbalance.
In the United States, liver cirrhosis is considered a serious health concern. According to Statista, in 2012, the deaths of males and females were 14.9 and 7.1 per 100,000 population. However, there was a dramatic increase in the number of deaths caused by liver cirrhosis in 2016: 19.7 males and 10 females caused by liver cirrhosis in the United States. Liver cirrhosis is regarded as a life-threatening presence because it can cause spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatic encephalopathy, and ascites.
This paper will lay out the possible ways to inform old people how drinking alcohol is very harmful to their liver. The interventions are based on social psychological theories and concepts to give them attention effectively to change bad healthy behavior. The concepts would be self-determination theory, social impact theory, and dynamical systems theory. Applying these concepts to the interventions would be able to persuade people by showing them multiple ways and to increase the possibility of adopting a healthy behavior. The interventions would include television news, the Internet, and social campaigns. This means that most of the old people have access to connect with the world. These would be able to extend older people’s awareness of health. They will understand the seriousness of cirrhosis caused by drinking alcohol and get an opportunity to learn alternatives to reverse their behaviors on health.
Literature Review
The first social psychological concept is the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) advanced by Petty and Cacioppo in 1980. It defines that people can be persuaded to change perspective in two ways; the central route and the peripheral route. When people have an interest and desire to deal with a problem, they would most likely be characterized by the central route. However, when they think the topic is not directly related to them and not interested in it, they would most likely follow the peripheral route. I think the peripheral route would work for aged people who are addicted to alcohol.
The vividness effect can be one of the factors that can help to persuade old people. Because as they get aged, it will not be easy for them to read and understand; therefore, using visualized materials would most likely work for motivation. People tend to remember and understand things better if a presentation is shown vividly with colors and graphs. The vividness effect is theorized that materials presented graphically are likely to be more effective than creating faded messages to catch a person’s attention. As a result, it definitely improves an individual’s motivation to accept a message and change his or her attitude and mind (Stephen Smith & David Shaffer).
The third is a psychological theory called fear appeals. According to Psychology research, it highlights negative results to motivate a person to reduce it. Using this theory, can make an individual’s mind stop adapting a bad behavior and change to a beneficial behavior. The theory is an assessment of the personal severity of the results related to health-damaged behavior. When the threat is applied to an individual, it will be the best motivation to protect himself or herself from that bad behavior. Then, older people who are addicted to alcohol would reduce drinking it and find a way to improve their health rather than leading themselves to death by continuously drinking alcohol.
Overview
The next section will be the interventions that will be outlined for alternative ways to change the bad behavior of drinking alcohol. Also, I will be adding social psychological concepts or theories to put together with the interventions. The reason for proposing the interventions is to persuade the elderly to reduce drinking alcohol and to overcome the addiction.
Intervention
In this section, I will be addressing how old people can stop drinking alcohol and adapt to healthy behavior. The following interventions would be focused on old people through television, the Internet, and social campaigns.
Television
I would use a television medium to persuade and encourage old adults to move their minds from the addiction. On television, a commercial will be broadcast with a story which is well describes the bad effects of drinking alcohol among old people. The purpose of the commercial would be to use social psychology concepts; and fear appraisal in order to attract attention from aged people. The story would be: There would be an aged couple in a hospital meeting a doctor. However, the doctor would tell them that the old man had cirrhosis and that he would die soon. It gives a mental attack to the couple, and they feel desperate for life. As a result, old people who are watching the commercial would realize that they can lose life because of the damaged liver from drinking alcohol.
Internet
The second intervention that I will be using is the Internet. Liquor bottles and an old person will be depicted in a photo. Also, there would be a demographic showing how many old people got cirrhosis in recent years using a scatter plot. It will be posted on Yahoo where a large number of the aged people access frequently. It will work for 50-year-old people than the one who is 20 years old because cirrhosis is the main cause that occurs in aged people. They would be able to react to the vividness effect which helps to persuade and attract audiences easily. Therefore, it will mostly work for old people; they will be motivated by visualized materials and adopt healthy behavior.
Social Campaign
Third, I will be using the social campaign for the intervention to extend the bad perception about drinking alcohol. The social campaign would visit a hospital to meet a patient who suffers from cirrhosis and interview how he got it. The members of the campaign will interview him on how many liquor bottles he has drunk. Then, they will have a movement in the street to report the interview to the public about what will happen to life if they are addicted to alcohol. The people in the social campaign will use the fear appeals concept to persuade people to adopt healthy behavior.
Conclusion
By informing through several interventions, it will be helpful to persuade old people not to drink alcohol as it harms their health and leads to death. It will work effectively to make people aware of the seriousness of cirrhosis. Using the vividness effect is the most effective strategy to induce aged people’s attention because of the function of colors and graphics.
However, there are flaws in the interventions. As there can be audiences who are not interested in the social campaign, it will not be able to spread the campaign throughout the United States. As a result, a message will not be able to convey to the aged people efficiently. Also, it will be difficult for old people to change their habit of drinking alcohol as they have been drinking for most of the years of their lives.
However, proposing the interventions I showed above, will be helpful to persuade people not to get more addicted to alcohol and get cirrhosis. Then, after several years passes, we will be able to see that the number of old people who get cirrhosis decrease. There will be more healthy people than now.
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