Pharmacists' smoking cessation practices : Relationship to their knowledge and skills, attitudes, and perceptions of roles

Objective: To assess factors associated with pharmacists' practices regarding patients' smoking and smoking cessation. Design: Cross-sectional analysis. Setting: Four Canadian provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island). Participants: Practicing community pharmacists (n = 906; weighted n = 897). Intervention: Population-based mailed questionnaire survey with 72% response rate. Main Outcome Measures: Bivariate and multivariate relationships between 12 clinical interventions regarding smoking and smoking cessation and 7 domains: basic pharmacologic knowledge; applied health science knowledge and skills; positive, negative and economic-related attitudes toward smoking cessation; perceptions of pharmacists' roles with patients who smoke: assessing and motivating patients; assisting, referring and following up. Results: Basic pharmacologic knowledge and applied health science knowledge and skills were independently related to 12 and 10 interventions, respectively. Positive attitudes toward smoking cessation were independently related to 8 interventions. Negative attitudes and economic-related attitudes toward smoking cessation were each independently related to only 1 intervention. Perceptions of pharmacists' roles with respect to "assessing and motivating patients," and "assisting, referring, and following up" were independently related to 8 and 3 interventions, respectively. Conclusion: Initiatives to increase tobacco-related knowledge and skills and enhance positive attitudes and role perceptions with respect to smoking and smoking cessation may promote interventions by community pharmacists with patients who smoke.