Survey on tobacco sales in newly registered insurance pharmacies and pharmacies in convenience stores in Japan

Abstract

Objectives　Pharmacies and pharmacists play an important role in health promotion by supporting citizens' attempts to quit smoking. Nevertheless, some pharmacies sell tobacco themselves. Therefore, we conducted a survey on tobacco sales in pharmacies to investigate regional differences and methods of sale.

Methods　As a nationwide survey, we merged the Japanese Local Finance Bureau's 2018 list of enterprisers permitted to sell tobacco with the Japanese Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare's list of insurance pharmacies to calculate the number and proportion of new insurance pharmacies that permit tobacco sales. Additionally, we counted the number and proportion of pharmacies in convenience stores selling tobacco based on the data on their websites and the aforementioned insurance pharmacy list. To provide a survey of existing pharmacies, we confirmed the tobacco selling status, presence of smoking space, presence of anti-passive smoking measures, and the coexistence of drugstores or convenience stores among insurance pharmacies in City A (an urban area in Osaka Prefecture) and City B (a rural area in Ishikawa Prefecture). These data were obtained through site visits from December 2018 to February 2019.

Results　Among 1,766 new insurance pharmacies in Japan, 124 (7.0%) were newly permitted to sell tobacco. Many insurance pharmacies in Kanto (71 of 602 new insurance pharmacies; 11.8%) and Tohoku (9 of 110; 8.2%) sold tobacco, while such pharmacies were rare in Shikoku (0 of 64; 0.0%) and Kyushu (1 of 211; 0.5%). Out of the total of 42 pharmacies in convenience stores in Japan, 34 (81%) of them sold tobacco, specifically in urban areas. To provide an existing insurance pharmacy survey, 1 of 28 pharmacies (4%) in City A and 3 of 29 (10%) in City B sold tobacco. All 4 pharmacies sold tobacco at their checkout counters and were located in drugstores. Three of the pharmacies (one in City A and two in City B) had smoking spaces outside, without offering any preventive measure for passive smoking.

Conclusion　Many insurance pharmacies sell tobacco in Japan. To encourage pharmacists to support smoking cessation, we need to reach consensus regarding tobacco sales in insurance pharmacies through discussions.