The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Idea of ‘pharmaceutical care' and ‘health promotion in pharmacy' states, that instructing patient about availability of drugs used in a nicotine dependence treatment and their prices is not the only task of pharmacist, but he is also required to assist patient in dependence treatment and promote abstinence.

Methods: The inquiry test was performed among active smokers (224 persons; 51% males and 49% females; age 39.2±12.9) to assess their expectation of pharmacists in nicotine dependence treatment. The second inquiry test was performed among pharmacists (178 persons) to evaluate their willingness and possibilities to assist patients in smoking cessation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmaceutical education curriculum in this area, the third inquiry test was performed among master's year students of pharmacy.

Results: 56% of examined active smokers claim that pharmacist is a competitive person to support smoking cessation. Obviously, majority of examined smokers (39%) treat pharmacist as a main source of information about drugs used in nicotine dependence treatment. On the other hand, majority of examined pharmacist (83%) think that they are able to effectively assist smoker during smoking cessation and to provide sufficient information about potential drugs and health problems associated with smoking. Results show that pharmacy students are well educated about nicotine dependence problems esp. about the theoretical bases like health problems arising from tobacco smoking and toxicology of tobacco smoke. There might be some lack in education about pharmacological aspects of nicotine dependence eg. about mechanism of the dependence and methods of nicotine dependence treatments.