Researchers at the University of Alberta looked at conversations between pharmacists and patients before and after an educational intervention to find out why some people refuse recommended pneumococcal vaccines and how pharmacists can help with vaccination uptake. "Knowing why individuals choose to receive vaccines or not can be really important in terms of being able to meet patients where they're at and provide them with the best possible information to make an informed decision ," says Danielle Nagy, a Ph.D.
student in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and co-author of a study exploring reasons for pneumococcal vaccine refusal. The paper is published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association . The pneumococcal vaccine is recommended for all adults over 65 due to the health consequences pneumococcal infections can have on older adults.
But only 58% of Canadians in this range have been vaccinated, far short of the Public Health Agency of Canada's 80% target. Pharmacists play a key role in providing vaccinations because they are accessible in communities and have a broad scope of practice. And previous studies have shown that pharmacist intervention can improve vaccination uptake among patients.
The missing piece, says Nagy, is more knowledge about why certain eligible people opt out of the pneumococcal vaccination. In the study—part of an ongoing research project to develop and test an intervention program aimed at improving pneumococcal vac.