Brief ReportAttitudes Toward Prohibiting Tobacco Sales in Pharmacy Stores Among U.S. Adults
Introduction
Pharmacy stores are positioned to cultivate health and wellness among patrons. However, many U.S. pharmacies sell and advertise tobacco, the nation’s leading preventable cause of death and disease.1 This is an established concern among pharmacists, whose professional obligation is to promote their patients’ health.2, 3, 4
Just as pharmacists’ attitudes can shape tobacco-free practices,5 public attitudes toward tobacco control interventions can inform policy development, implementation, and sustainment. Previous studies have documented general public favorability toward tobacco-related sales restrictions in pharmacy stores at national and local levels, and variations in favorability by sociodemographic characteristics and cigarette smoking status.6, 7 However, increasingly more communities across the U.S. have since implemented policies that prohibit the sale of tobacco products in these settings.8 Moreover, the tobacco product landscape continues to diversify, and no study has assessed variations in public attitudes toward such policies by other forms of tobacco product use beyond cigarettes. Accordingly, this study assessed the prevalence and determinants of favorability toward prohibiting the sale of tobacco products in pharmacy stores among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults in 2014.
Section snippets
Data Source
Data came from Summer Styles, a web-based survey conducted by Porter Novelli to explore health behaviors and attitudes among U.S. adults aged ≥18 years. Styles respondents are drawn from the nationally representative KnowledgePanel®, which uses probability-based sampling to recruit online panelists regardless of landline phone or Internet access. As described previously, Summer Styles is sent to a stratified random sample of respondents, and data are weighted to be nationally representative
Results
Overall, 66.1% of U.S. adults favored (“strongly” or “somewhat”) prohibiting tobacco product sales in pharmacy stores; 20.1% “somewhat opposed” and 13.8% “strongly opposed” the idea (Table 1). Prevalence of favorability was 62.2% among men and 69.7% among women. Favorability ranged from 63.7% among adults aged 25–44 years to 72.2% among adults aged ≥65 years; from 64.6% among non-Hispanic blacks to 70.4% among non-Hispanic other races; from 61.7% among adults with less than a high school
Discussion
This study reveals that two thirds of U.S. adults, including nearly half of cigarette smokers and non-cigarette tobacco users, favor prohibiting the sale of tobacco products in retail pharmacy stores. A majority of all assessed sociodemographic groups favored prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, but the likelihood of favoring such a policy was lower among adults aged 25–44 years and 45–64 years, and among adults with annual income <$15,000. These findings are generally consistent with
Conclusions
A majority of U.S. adults favor prohibiting tobacco sales in retail pharmacy stores. Eliminating tobacco product sales in these settings may reinforce pharmacy stores’ efforts to promote wellness, and further cultivate social climates that reduce the desirability, acceptability, and accessibility of tobacco. Prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, along with the implementation of proven population-level tobacco control interventions, could help reduce tobacco-related death and disease.
Acknowledgments
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper.
References (19)
- et al.
Toking, vaping, and eating for health or fun: marijuana use patterns in adults, U.S., 2014
Am J Prev Med
(2016) The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: a Report of the Surgeon General
(2014)- et al.
Pharmacists’ concerns and suggestions related to the sale of tobacco and alcohol in pharmacies
J Community Health
(1998) - et al.
Tobacco sales in pharmacies: time to quit
Tob Control
(2006) - et al.
Tobacco sales in pharmacies: a survey of attitudes, knowledge and beliefs of pharmacists employed in student experiential and other worksites in Western New York
BMC Res Notes
(2012) - American Pharmacists Association Policy Manual. American Pharmacists Association website....
- et al.
Consumer perceptions of the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies and grocery stores among U.S. adults
BMC Res Notes
(2013) - et al.
Public perceptions of the ban on tobacco sales in San Francisco pharmacies
Tob Control
(2013) - American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Municipalities with tobacco-free pharmacy laws enacted as of January 1, 2016....
Cited by (8)
Retailer density reduction approaches to tobacco control: A review
2021, Health and PlaceCitation Excerpt :Forty-two percent reported a preference to purchase medications from a pharmacy that does not sell tobacco products, which was highest among non-smokers, followed by former smokers, then current smokers (Patwardhan et al., 2013). In 2014, 66.1% of adults favored prohibiting sales of tobacco in pharmacies (Wang et al., 2016). A convenience sample of shoppers at pharmacies in San Francisco following the 2008 ban of sale similarly expressed that the policy had little impact on their shopping at pharmacies; more smokers reported no longer shopping at pharmacies (Kroon et al., 2013).
Tobacco-Free Pharmacies and U.S. Adult Smoking Behavior: Evidence From CVS Health's Removal of Tobacco Sales
2020, American Journal of Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :Given the adverse health effects of smoking and the public perception of pharmacies as institutions focused on promoting health, there is generally broad population-based support for prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies. A 2014 survey showed that 66% of U.S. adults, including nearly half of those who smoke cigarettes, favored prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies.10 Additionally, the American Pharmacists Association opposes tobacco sales in pharmacies.11
Adults' favorability toward prohibiting flavors in all tobacco products in the United States
2019, Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :Selection of variables was based on the findings from previous studies on public attitudes toward tobacco control laws.( Odani et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2016; Tynan et al., 2019) To reduce collinearity, each independent variable was iteratively modelled, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, and tobacco product use status as appropriate. All analyses were performed using R, version 3.5.1.
Attitudes toward smokeless tobacco use at all public sports venues among U.S. adults, 2016
2018, Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :This remained so, even after controlling for tobacco product use. Higher likelihood of opposing SLT use at sports venues among females and older adults might reflect their concern about the potential impact of pro-tobacco social influences on tobacco use initiation among younger generations; females and older individuals are more likely to support policies to reduce tobacco product acceptability and accessibility (Wang et al., 2016a). A 2013 study also found higher support for smoke-free environments among women, older individuals, and those with higher education, which was ascribed to the lower cigarette smoking prevalence among those groups (King et al., 2013).
Perpetuating stigma or reducing risk? Perspectives from naloxone consumers and pharmacists on pharmacy-based naloxone in 2 states
2017, Journal of the American Pharmacists AssociationCigarette Promotions in U.S. Pharmacies
2022, Nicotine and Tobacco Research