Pharmacists' Perspectives on Providing Educational Intervention to Address E-Cigarette Use and Vaping among Adolescents and Their Parents.

Abstract

Background: The use of newer forms of nicotine, such as e-cigarettes, has become popular among youth, creating a growing concern about its health impact on adolescents. As the adolescent vaping epidemic persists, it is necessary to engage all public-facing healthcare professionals in prevention and reduction efforts against e-cigarette use. With pharmacists being the most accessible health care professional, they are well-suited to expand their tobacco services to include vaping.

Objective: The objectives of this study are to examine pharmacists' opinions on the potential role they may have in addressing adolescent vaping and to determine pharmacists' view on a proposed educational tool (Ph-EVER) for adolescents and parents to learn more about vaping and e-cigarette use.

Methods: Licensed and practicing pharmacists in Wisconsin were recruited via pharmacy organizations' email listservs to take part in a semi-structured interview. The interview questions covered knowledge on adolescent vaping, the role of pharmacists in addressing adolescent vaping, interactions with adolescents in their practice, and feedback on the Ph-EVER. Two study team members independently coded the interviews to generate prevalent themes and subthemes.

Results: In this study, 30 pharmacist participants were interviewed. From their interviews, themes that emerged included how pharmacists interact with teens, what they already know about e-cigarettes, the potential roles pharmacists may have on adolescent vaping, and feedback on the Ph-EVER.

Conclusion: Pharmacists can be key professionals in reducing adolescent vaping; however, they lack knowledge on the topic of e-cigarettes, indicating the need for continuing education. Many pharmacists noted that they rarely see adolescents in their practice setting, making adolescents a difficult population to reach. Pharmacists were open to the idea of implementing the Ph-EVER within their pharmacy stating it achieved its intended purpose. Recommendations were made to expand this resource to social media to target the adolescent population.