Hk. Sinclair et al., Training pharmacists and pharmacy assistants in the stage-of-change model of smoking cessation: a randomised controlled trial in Scotland, TOB CONTROL, 7(3), 1998, pp. 253-261
Citations number
45
Categorie Soggetti
Public Health & Health Care Science","Envirnomentale Medicine & Public Health
Objective-To evaluate a training workshop for community pharmacy personnel
to improve their counselling in smoking cessation based on the stage-of-cha
nge model.
Design-A randomised controlled trial of community pharmacies and pharmacy c
ustomers.
Setting-All 76 non-city community pharmacies registered in Grampian, Scotla
nd, were invited to participate. Sixty-two pharmacies (82%) were recruited.
Subjects-All the intervention pharmacy personnel were invited to attend the
training; 40 pharmacists and 54 assistants attended. A total of 492 custom
ers who smoked (224 intervention, 268 controls) were recruited during the 1
2-month recruitment period (overall recruitment rate 63%).
Main outcome measures-The perceptions of customers and pharmacy personnel o
f the pharmacy support and self-reported smoking cessation rates for the tw
o groups of customers at one, four, and nine months.
Results-The intervention customer respondents were significantly more likel
y to have discussed stopping smoking with pharmacy personnel, 85% (113) com
pared with 62% (99) of the controls (p<0.001). The former also rated their
discussion more highly; 34% (45) of the intervention customers compared wit
h 16% (25) of the controls rated it as "very useful" (p = 0.048). Assuming
non-responders had lapsed, one-month point prevalence of abstinence was cla
imed by 30% of intervention customers and 24% of controls (p = 0.12); four
months' continuous abstinence was claimed by 16% of intervention customers
and 11% of controls (p = 0.094); and nine months' continuous abstinence was
claimed by 12% of intervention customers and 7% of controls (p = 0.089). T
hese trends in outcome were not affected by potential confounders (sex, age
, socioeconomic status, nicotine dependence, and type of nicotine replaceme
nt product used) or adjustment for clustering.
Conclusions-The intervention was associated with increased and more highly
rated counselling, and a trend toward abstinence was intervention higher sm
oking cessation rates, indicating that community pharmacy personnel have th
e potential to make a significant contribution to national smoking cessatio
n targets.