Parents' intention to have their child vaccinated at a community pharmacy: A national cross-sectional survey.

Abstract

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, pediatric vaccination rates for routine childhood vaccines have been declining. In order to boost pediatric immunizations, pharmacists in the United States may order and administer age-appropriate vaccines to children between three years of age or older without a prescription.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine parents’ intention to have their young children between three and ten years old vaccinated in a community pharmacy setting.MethodsA survey instrument was designed based on the health belief model. The cross-sectional survey was administered online via Qualtrics® to parents in the United States with at least one child between the ages of three and ten years old. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to estimate the correlation between each of the health belief model constructs and a three-item scale measuring parents’ intention to have their children between the ages of three and ten vaccinated in a community pharmacy.ResultsThere were 416 usable responses collected for an effective response rate of 25.95%. Most participants were white (79.09%), female (51.44%), and many had a graduate degree (48.32%). Over half of parents, 69.7% indicated they would be willing to have their child vaccinated in a community pharmacy. Intention to have their child vaccinated in a pharmacy were most strongly corrected with health benefit beliefs (), cues to action (), and perceived convenience ().ConclusionMany parents have high intention to vaccinate their young children in community pharmacies. Parents should be educated and informed about services that community pharmacies offer. Stakeholders need to engage in interventions targeted at promoting health benefits of getting vaccinations at a pharmacy and strong recommendations from healthcare providers.