Patients' intentions to seek medication information from pharmacists

To determine whether perceived medication use knowledge held and/or needed influenced intention to seek information from pharmacists, whether an information-intention relationship held after accounting for other variables, and whether asking medication use knowledge questions increased pharmacist information-seeking intention.

Cross-sectional study. SETTING United States during July 2012.

Qualtrics national panel members 21 years or older obtaining a new chronic medication within previous 30 days.

Internet-administered survey.

Medication information-seeking intention, medication knowledge held and needed, and pharmacist medication information-seeking intention.

Although knowledge held and needed were initially significant, they became nonsignificant after adding affective and evaluative attitudes, perceived control, and risk. The final best-fitting model explained 21% of variance in pharmacist information-seeking intention. Patient intentions to seek information from pharmacists increased significantly after being asked medication use knowledge questions.

Perceptions of medication risk, attitudes, and information-seeking control predict pharmacist information-seeking intention and offer pharmacists an opportunity to market information services.