Skin cancer prevention counseling by pharmacists: specific outcomes of an intervention trial

Cancer Detect Prev. 1998;22(4):367-75. doi: 10.1046/j.1525-1500.1998.cdoa40.x.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an intervention on pharmacists' behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes related to skin cancer prevention counseling. Fifty-four pharmacy sites (N = 178 pharmacists) were randomly assigned to the intervention or control condition. Intervention consisted of video-based training, prompts installed in the pharmacy to promote pharmacist-patient discussions on the topic, and group-based feedback on previous week's counseling rates. Outcomes were measured using a mailed survey. The proportion of patients counseled at post-test was significantly higher among intervention subjects, adjusting for pretest values. Similar results were found for pharmacists' skin cancer knowledge and self-rated expertise, but not for counseling-related attitudes. The intervention was successful. If implemented on a wide scale, large segments of the U.S. population would be exposed to skin cancer prevention advice.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Female
  • Health Promotion / methods*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Pharmacists*
  • Skin Neoplasms / prevention & control*