ArticleHarm reduction journal2024
Come back when you're infected: pharmacy access to sterile syringes in an Arizona Secret Shopper Study, 2023.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sterile syringe availability in Georgia pharmacies remained rare, despite policy change permitting sales.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Pharmacy-related syringe access barriers: an audit of Oregon community pharmacies.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Over-the-Counter Naloxone and Nonprescription Syringe Availability in Community Pharmacies.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- ASAP: A pharmacy-level intervention to increase nonprescription syringe sales to reduce bloodborne illnesses.Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP · 2024Article
- Community pharmacists' attitudes toward and practice of pharmacy-based harm reduction services in Pittsburgh, PA: a descriptive survey.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- An approach designed to fail deaf children and their parents and how to change it.Harm reduction journal · 2024Review
- Access to syringes at pharmacies (ASAP): Preliminary impact of a pharmacy-level intervention.Journal of the American Pharmacists Association : JAPhAArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPharmacies are critical healthcare partners in community efforts to eliminate bloodborne illnesses. Pharmacy sale of sterile syringes is central to this effort.
methodsA mixed methods "secret shopper" syringe purchase study was conducted in the fall of 2022 with 38 community pharmacies in Maricopa and Pima Counties, Arizona. Pharmacies were geomapped to within 2 miles of areas identified as having a potentially high volume of illicit drug commerce. Daytime venue sampling was used whereby separate investigators with lived/living drug use experience attempted to purchase syringes without a prescription. Investigator response when prompted for purchase rationale was "to protect myself from HIV and hepatitis C." A 24-item instrument measured sales outcome, pharmacy staff interaction (hostile/neutral/friendly), and the buyer's subjective experience.
resultsOnly 24.6% (n = 28) of 114 purchase attempts across the 38 pharmacies resulted in syringe sale. Less than one quarter (21.1%) of pharmacies always sold, while 44.7% never sold. Independent and food store pharmacies tended not to sell syringes. There emerged distinct pharmacy staff interactions characterized by body language, customer query, normalization or othering response, response to purchase request and closure. Pharmacy discretion and pharmacy policy not to sell syringes without a prescription limited sterile syringe access. Investigators reported frequent and adverse emotional impact due to pharmacy staff negative and stigmatizing interactions.
conclusionsPharmacies miss opportunities to advance efforts to eliminate bloodborne infections by stringent no-sale policy and discretion about syringe sale. State regulatory policy facilitating pharmacy syringe sales, limiting pharmacist discretion for syringe sales, and targeting pharmacy-staff level education may help advance the achievement of public health goals to eliminate bloodborne infections in Arizona.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.