Increased Access to Unrestricted Pharmacy Sales of Syringes in Seattle-King County, Washington: Structural and Individual-Level Changes, 1996 Versus 2003

We examined pharmacists' attitudes and practices related to syringe sales to injection drug users before and after legal reform and local programming to enhance sterile syringe access. We replicated a 1996 study by conducting pharmacist phone surveys and syringe test-buys in randomly selected p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of public health (1971) Vol. 96; no. 8; pp. 1347 - 1353
Main Authors Deibert, Ryan J, Goldbaum, Gary, Parker, Theodore R, Hagan, Holly, Marks, Robert, Hanrahan, Michael, Thiede, Hanne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Am Public Health Assoc 01.08.2006
American Public Health Association
American Journal of Public Health 2006
Subjects
Attitude of Health Personnel
Attitudes
Changes
Community-Acquired Infections - etiology
Community-Acquired Infections - prevention & control
Counseling
Cross-Sectional Studies
Customers
Disease control
Disease prevention
Disease transmission
Drug stores
Drug use
Ethnicity
Health Policy
Health Policy and Ethics
Hepatitis C
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Hypodermic needles
Infections
Intervention
Medical Waste Disposal
Needle exchange programs
Organizational Policy
Patient Simulation
Pharmacies - legislation & jurisprudence
Pharmacies - organization & administration
Pharmacists
Pharmacists - psychology
Pharmacists - statistics & numerical data
Polls & surveys
Practice Patterns, Physicians
Public health
Purchasing
Reforms
Regulatory reform
Retail sales
Sales
Sterilization
Substance Abuse, Intravenous
Suburban areas
Syringes - supply & distribution
Washington
Washington
Empirical Approach
Health Care and Public Health
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Summary:We examined pharmacists' attitudes and practices related to syringe sales to injection drug users before and after legal reform and local programming to enhance sterile syringe access. We replicated a 1996 study by conducting pharmacist phone surveys and syringe test-buys in randomly selected pharmacies. Test-buy success increased from 48% in 1996 to 65% in 2003 (P=.04). Pharmacists agreeing that syringes should be available to injection drug users through pharmacy purchase increased from 49% to 71% (P<.01). Pharmacy policies and pharmacist attitudes were strongly associated with syringe access. Structural changes, including policy reform and pharmacy outreach, appear to increase syringe access. Interventions should address pharmacy policies and pharmacist attitudes and policies.
Bibliography:Contributors…R. J. Deibert wrote the study protocol, conducted and supervised all 2003 data collection and analyses, and led the writing. G. Goldbaum was principle investigator and supervised and contributed to all aspects of study design, implementation, and analysis. T.R. Parker designed data collection instruments and sampling methods and conducted all 1996 data collection. H. Hagan originated the study and contributed to the writing. R. Marks contributed to study design and recruited pharmacies. M. Hanrahan contributed to study design and supervised pharmacy recruitment. H. Thiede contributed to study design, data collection, and analysis. All authors helped to conceptualize ideas, interpret findings, and review drafts of the article.
Peer Reviewed
Requests for reprints should be sent to Ryan J. Deibert, Oregon Department of Human Services, 800 NE Oregon St., Suite 1105, Portland, OR 97232 (e-mail: ryan.j.deibert@state.or.us).
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2003.032698