Community pharmacists' participation in health education and disease prevention activities

Community pharmacists are faced with many opportunities to participate in health education and disease prevention activities. This study sought to determine the extent to which community pharmacists in British Columbia participate in such activities. A mail questionnaire was distributed to a systematic, stratified sample of 625 community pharmacists in B.C. (response rate = 83.6%). A five-point Likert-type scale was used to examine the frequencies of pharmacist involvement in 33 different health education/disease prevention activities. Results of the study indicate that pharmacists most frequently participate in health education/disease-preventing activities directly related to the dispensing or selling of medications. Activities exhibiting the lowest participation among pharmacists included speaking to community groups on health-related matters, participating in disease screening programs, querying clients on their level of occupational stress, counselling clients on AIDS prevention, and querying clients on their smoking status.