Service quality and parents' willingness to get adolescents HPV vaccine from pharmacists

Abstract

We sought to examine whether pharmacy service quality was associated with parents' willingness to have immunizing pharmacists administer human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to their adolescent children. Participants were a national sample of 1504 US parents of adolescents ages 11 to 17 who completed an online survey in 2014. Analyses used structural equation modeling. Parents rated service quality and feelings of satisfaction with their pharmacies as moderate to high. Many (44%) were willing to get HPV vaccine from immunizing pharmacists for their adolescent children. Compared with parents who went to chain pharmacies, parents who went to independent pharmacies gave higher ratings of service quality (professionalism, confidentiality, milieu, all p < .001). Parents who went to clinic pharmacies, compared with parents who went to chain pharmacies gave lower ratings for milieu (p < .01). Parents who went to independent pharmacies had lower willingness to get HPV vaccine from pharmacists compared to parents who went to chain pharmacies (p = .001), but there was no difference in willingness for parents who went to clinic versus chain pharmacies. Service quality and satisfaction partially mediated the effect between independent pharmacies compared to chain pharmacies and willingness (p < .05). Parents who knew their pharmacists or expressed more confidence in HPV vaccine also had higher willingness to get their children HPV vaccine from pharmacist. Many parents were willing to go to immunizing pharmacists for their children's HPV vaccination. Pharmacies that are considering offering HPV vaccine may be able to improve vaccine uptake by increasing perception of service quality.