Nicotine replacement therapies: smoking cessation outcomes in a pharmacy setting in Scotland

• Published in: Tobacco control 1995-12, Vol.4 (4), p.338-343
• Main Authors: Sinclair, H. K., Bond, C. M., Lennox, A. S., Taylor, R. J., Winfield, A. J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cigarette smoking; Communities; General practice; Health promotion; Marketing strategies; Pharmacies; Pharmacists; Questionnaires; Response rates; Smoking cessation
• ISSN: 0964-4563; 1468-3318
• DOI: 10.1136/tc.4.4.338

Objective — To determine the volume of sales in Scotland of the various types of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), the user population demography, and smoking cessation outcome. Methods — A multistage design was used. A questionnaire was sent to a 50% random sample of the 1139 registered Scottish community pharmacies to monitor NRT availability and to recruit to the second stage. A second pharmacy stage assessed volume and nature of sales and collected customer information. Customers were followed up by postal questionnaire at one month, and by telephone interview or postal questionnaire at seven months. Results — Of the pharmacies initially contacted, 80% completed the first questionnaire and 52% completed the records of NRT sales. The initial point-of-sale questionnaire was completed by 42% of the customers, 22% responded at one month, and 21% at seven months. On average, pharmacies sold five NRTs per week, with patches accounting for 52% of sales, gum 37%, and others 11%. The mean age of customer respondents was 43 years; most were female (59%), affluent (53%), regularly used the same pharmacy (88%), and had received pharmacy support (72%). Subjects lost to follow up were assumed to have continued to smoke. The point prevalence cessation rate at one month was 15% (13% excluding long term gum users), and 9% (6% excluding long term gum users) achieved seven months of continuous abstinence. Most telephone interviewees (90%) would value a more structured pharmacy counselling service. Conclusions — The methodological difficulties of pharmacy based research are highlighted, in particular the problem of following up customers in the pharmacy setting. However, in spite of the poor customer response, the results have face validity in that they concur with previously published data on NRT use in other settings. Smoking cessation rates for customers buying NRT in community pharmacies seem to be comparable to those previously reported for other settings. There is a demand from NRT users for the introduction of a more structured pharmacy counselling service, which now needs to be developed and evaluated.