Assessment of smoking cessation assistance in French pharmacies

Introduction: While smoking continues to kill 73,000 people each year in France, new legislation allows pharmacists to ensure public health actions. How do pharmacists contribute to smoking cessation? Methods: This study described smoking cessation professional practices, the tests used and dispensing of nicotine replacement therapy based on an online questionnaire administered to a random sample of 220 pharmacists, selected from the Ordre des pharmaciens website. The questionnaire concerned the type of pharmacy, place of smoking cessation support, knowledge and application of tests, training, referral to the physician and dispensing of nicotine replacement therapy. Results: Among the 133 respondent pharmacies, minimal intervention and the Fagerstrom test were two tools most commonly used and 82.7% of pharmacists advised nicotine replacement therapy. Practices complied with guidelines, although certain dispensing difficulties were identified, as well as somewhat approximate or even incorrect knowledge concerning the dispensing of nicotine replacement therapy for certain patients (coronary heart disease, pregnant and breastfeeding women, teenagers). Discussion: Certain improvements can be proposed such as the use of a confidential place for private conversations, better patient follow-up, better training and improvement of good practices by young pharmacists.