Educating the public about skin cancer prevention: a role for pharmacists

The incidence of skin cancer is increasing at an alarming rate. This study aimed to assess pharmacists' willingness to counsel patients about skin cancer and factors which are predictive of this.

A 30 item survey assessing skin cancer prevention counselling attitudes and behaviours, personal skin cancer prevention behaviours, and willingness to counsel on skin cancer prevention, was mailed to 300 randomly selected San Diego County pharmacists.

Data obtained from 128 pharmacists (43% response rate) indicated that the incidence of skin cancer prevention counselling was very low, with over one-third stating that they never counsel patients on this topic. Of those that did counsel, the percentage of patients counselled on skin cancer prevention was below 5%. Bivariate analyses indicated that pharmacists who counselled on this topic differed from those that did not on knowledge of skin cancer, attitudes and beliefs about counselling patients, pharmacy setting, services offered by their pharmacies, and their personal sun protective behaviours. Multivariate analysis indicated that two variables independently predicted skin cancer prevention counselling; whether the pharmacy where the respondent was employed offered this service, and attitude about counselling. Over 90% of respondents reported they were willing to counsel patients on skin cancer prevention and other health-related topics.

Future studies should focus on skin cancer prevention counselling barriers and environmental prompts encouraging this type of interaction between pharmacists and patients.