Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pharmacy syringe sales are effective structural interventions to reduce bloodborne illnesses in populations, and are legal in all but two states. Yet evidence indicates reduced syringe sales in recent years. This study was designed as a feasibility test of an intervention to promote syringe sales by pharmacies in Arizona.
METHODS: A four-month pilot among three Arizona pharmacies measured feasibility and acceptability through monthly surveys to 18 enrolled pharmacy staff members.
RESULTS: Pharmacy staff reported increased ease of dispensing syringes across the study. Rankings of syringe dispensing as 'easiest' among 6 measured pharmacy practices increased from 38.9 % at baseline to 50.1 % post intervention module training, and to 83.3 % at pilot conclusion. The majority (72.2 %) of pharmacy staff agreed that intervention materials were easy to use. Over 70 % indicated that the intervention was influential in their "being more open to selling syringes without a prescription to someone who might use them for illicit drug use," and 61.1 % reported that in the future, they were highly likely to dispense syringes to customers who would use them to inject drugs. A vast majority (92 %) reported being likely to dispense subsidized naloxone if available to their pharmacy at no cost.
CONCLUSIONS: An education-based intervention was found to be feasible and acceptable to pharmacy staff and had an observed impact on perceptions of ease and likelihood of dispensing syringes without a prescription to people who may use them to inject drugs.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-1-2024
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2024.04.019
Funding Information
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute On Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number (R03DA053252). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We would also like to thank the Drug Policy Research and Advocacy Board for their guidance on this study.
Repository Citation
Meyerson, B. E.; Agley, J.; Crosby, Richard A.; Bentele, K. G.; Vadiei, N.; Linde-Krieger, L. B.; Russell, D. R.; Fine, K.; and Eldridge, L. A., "ASAP: A pharmacy-level intervention to increase nonprescription syringe sales to reduce bloodborne illnesses." (2024). Health, Behavior & Society Faculty Publications. 41.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/healthbehavior_facpub/41
Notes/Citation Information
1551-7411/© 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.