Knowledge, attitude, practice and perceived barriers towards smoking cessation services among community pharmacists.

With more than one billion current smokers, 80% of them living in low and middle-income countries, tobacco smoking is considered a global public health problem. Jordan has one of the highest estimate rates of tobacco use in the region and world. Still, tobacco use interventions, that could significantly reduce the number of smoking-related diseases and reduce health care costs, are scarce. While such interventions could be carried out by community pharmacists, given their unique position to counsel patients and provide effective cessation interventions, the role of community pharmacists in tobacco control services in Jordan has never been fully investigated. This study aimed at assessing the community pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, and practice towards smoking cessation and identifying their perceived barriers for smoking cessation counselling utilizing a sample of community pharmacists in Northern Jordan. A cross-sectional study was conducted among community pharmacies in Irbid city, North of Jordan, between April and August 2018. A random sample of 95 pharmacies was selected using the multistage random sampling technique. A structured English questionnaire, consisting of 5 parts, was used. The Survey assessed pharmacists' socio-demographics, knowledge, attitude, practice and perceived barriers related to tobacco use cessation services. One hundred and fifty pharmacists completed the survey. Their mean age was 30.71±10.10 years. The mean of pharmacists' knowledge score was 3.74±0.38, while their positive and negative attitude were 3.87±0.43 and 3.18±0.66 respectively. Pharmacists' mean smoking cessation practice was 2.01+0.64. Barriers to providing cessation interventions included the lack of training on nicotine replacement therapy products (86%), the lack of smoking cessation programs (84%) and low demands from smokers (83.3%). While knowledge related to tobacco use cessation services among the community pharmacists was sub-optimal, a good positive attitude and a low practice levels were observed. The lack of educational materials, low patients' demand, knowledge deficits, low training and the lack of cessation programs have been identified as barriers hindering the provision of smoking cessation services. Furthermore, the study identified factors that will increase community pharmacists' participation in smoking cessation, help in raising pharmacists' awareness of smoking as a public health problem and the importance of their role.

Sakka S ，Al-Shatanawi TN ，Bataineh DZ ，Haddad W ，Al Tamimi S ，Al Salamat H ，Al-Mistarehi AH ，Alsulaiman J ，Kheirallah K ... -  《-》

Community Pharmacies' Promotion of Smoking Cessation Support Services in Saudi Arabia: Examining Current Practice and Barriers.

Alzahrani F ，Sandaqji Y ，Alharrah A ，Alblowi R ，Alrehaili S ，Mohammed-Saeid W ... -  《-》

Smoking cessation counseling in Qatar: community pharmacists' attitudes, role perceptions and practices.

El Hajj MS ，Al Nakeeb RR ，Al-Qudah RA 《-》

Activities and perceptions of pharmacists providing tobacco control services in community pharmacy in Thailand.

Thananithisak C ，Nimpitakpong P ，Chaiyakunapruk N 《-》

Effects of educational interventions on the smoking cessation service provided by community pharmacists: A systematic review.

This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions on the smoking cessation service provided by community pharmacists. A systematic literature search was performed in May-July 2021, in electronic databases, which included PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, and Web of Science. Studies were included in this systematic review if they were original articles published in English language from 2010 to 2021 and evaluated the effect of any types of educational interventions intended to improve the ability of community pharmacists to provide smoking cessation services. In total, 12 studies were included for this systematic review. The effectiveness of the educational interventions across the included studies was measured using a range of outcomes, which can be broadly categorized into 3 categories, namely changes in pharmacists' self-efficacy, knowledge, and attitude toward providing smoking cessation service, changes in pharmacists' smoking cessation practices, and changes in the effectiveness of community pharmacy based smoking cessation services. Included studies reported that educational interventions can improve pharmacists' self-efficacy, knowledge, and attitude toward smoking cessation, as well as pharmacists' smoking cessation practices. Though the evidence is limited, improvement in the effectiveness of community pharmacy based smoking cessation services has also been observed. Any form educational interventions can positively impact improve community pharmacists' self-efficacy, knowledge, and attitude toward smoking cessation, as well as pharmacists' smoking cessation practices, but it is currently uncertain whether these outcomes are able to translate into higher effectiveness of the community pharmacy based smoking cessation services.

Appalasamy JR ，Selvaraj A ，Wong YH ，Dujaili JA ，Kow CS ... -  《-》