Effectiveness of intervention to implement tobacco cessation counseling in community chain pharmacies

To test the feasibility of implementing ask-advise-refer (AAR) tobacco cessation counseling approach in community chain pharmacies serving low socioeconomic areas and to assess the effectiveness of a multimodal intervention on short-term implementation of AAR.

Randomized controlled trial.

South-central Wisconsin from July 2008 through March 2009.

Pharmacists and technicians from 16 community chain pharmacies.

Training to implement AAR, workflow integration recommendations, tobacco cessation poster to create awareness, and a support visit.

Number of pharmacy patrons asked about tobacco use, number of tobacco users advised to quit, number of tobacco users enrolled in the quit line, and number of quit line cards given.

As hypothesized, the multimodal intervention significantly predicted the number of patrons asked to quit (estimate 4.84, incidence rate ratio 127.2, P < 0.001), number of tobacco users advised to quit (2.12, 8.33, P < 0.01), number of tobacco users enrolled in the quit line (2.31, 10.13, P < 0.001), and number of quit line cards given (1.04, 2.82, P < 0.05).

This trial demonstrates the feasibility of implementing AAR in routine community pharmacy practice. This trial also supports the short-term effectiveness of the multimodal intervention in facilitating AAR in partnership with other public health systems. More research is needed to evaluate the generalizability, effectiveness, and sustainability of AAR, including factors influencing adoption and the impact on cessation.