Smoking cessation in pharmacies - Evaluation of the smoking cessation campaign "Tobacco Adieu!" among pharmacists in Basle

Now as in the past, tobacco consumption is a major health problem in Switze rland. Efforts to reduce tobacco consumption include different preventive s trategies. Although dispensary pharmacists have increased their efforts in health promotion and prevention in recent years, their role in tobacco prev ention has nor been documented so far: The "Tobacco Adieu!" campaign to sup port smoking cessation was introduced in pharmacies as a low threshold offe r in Basle in 1996. This paper assesses the process and the effect of this effort. Participating pharmacies were interviewed during the evaluation and all con sultations in this area were recorded in questionnaires. Customers requesti ng counselling from pharmacies during the campaign were also asked to fill in a questionnaire regarding their smoking behaviour and their experiences in the pharmacy. The offer was well accepted by the public: During the four week period, abo ut 2'000 client contacts for smoking cessation took place in the 63 partici pating pharmacies. Compared to the pre-campaign situation, more intensive c ounselling look place. Clients who received counselling in the pharmacies g enerally attested to its good quality In addition to counselling, further c are during the smoking cessation phase was offered-to clients who wanted to quit smoking. Follow-up visits were agreed in 76 percent of the cases. The project shows that smokers can be motivated to consider cessation and s upported in the process by pharmacists. Therefore, pharmacies can be used a s a low threshold offer in this context Expansion of this programme in publ ic pharmacies seems justified. However; continuing education and a motivate d team are the prerequisites for successful counselling of smokers in pharm acies.