4CPS-016 Factors influencing the attitudes and opinions of Czech physicians and citizens toward influenza vaccination in Czech pharmacies

Abstract

<h3>Background and importance</h3> Pharmacists are health professionals who have the skills and logistic ability to vaccinate. Pharmacy-based vaccination (PBV) has already shown widespread success. Czech Republic has low influenza vaccination rate with currently no PBV. <h3>Aim and objectives</h3> The objective of this study was to determine physicians’ and citizens’ attitudes and opinions toward influenza vaccination in Czech pharmacies. <h3>Material and methods</h3> A representative sociological cross-sectional study was conducted from November to December 2020 through face-to-face structured interviews. A questionnaire was used for this purpose. The first part was focused on sociodemographic variables (eg, gender, age). The second part examined the attitude of physicians and citizens to influenza vaccination in pharmacies (positives, negatives, utilisation of PBV). The third part was composed of statements (whether citizens and physicians agree with influenza vaccination in pharmacies). For the characteristics of the tested cohort, descriptive statistics were expressed as either absolute and relative frequencies. Pearson Chi-square test was processed for correlation analysis by SASD 1.5.8. <h3>Results</h3> Of 1348 physicians, 1093 (611; 55.9% women) with mean age 48 ± 0.8 years participated. Of 2302 citizens, 1769 (902; 51.0% women) with mean age 47 ± 0.1 years agreed to participate in the study. Citizens as well as physicians mostly disagreed with vaccination against influenza in pharmacies (41.1% vs 56.3%) and more than a third of citizens could not express an opinion on this issue (33.7%). According to citizens, this vaccination will allow greater availability of influenza vaccination (22.7%) and relief for general practitioners (24.3%). About half the citizens (50.3%) did not perceive any positives, mainly those with lower education (p&lt;0.001). As a negative, one-third of citizens (31.0%) perceived the pharmacy as an inadequate place for vaccination. In the physicians’ opinion, pharmacists are unable to deal with adverse drug reactions after vaccination (46.6%).Conversely, 41.8% of physicians also perceived vaccination in pharmacies as a positive relief for general practitioners. <h3>Conclusion and relevance</h3> Almost half of citizens and physicians currently disagree with vaccination in pharmacies in the Czech Republic. The physicians’ main concern is the inability of pharmacists to deal with adverse drug reactions. For citizens, the major disadvantage is locating PBV in a pharmacy. <h3>References and/or acknowledgements</h3> <h3>Conflict of interest</h3> No conflict of interest