A multimodal approach to improving human papillomavirus vaccination in a community pharmacy setting

Community pharmacy has become a major access point for several types of vaccinations. Despite the success of vaccination programs like influenza, pneumococcal, and herpes zoster, the rates of human papillomavirus vaccination continue to lag.

The primary objective is to describe and report on the impact of a multimodal series of pharmacist-led educational interventions on human papillomavirus vaccination rates in a community pharmacy setting. The primary outcome of this study was change in pharmacist-delivered human papillomavirus vaccination throughout a corresponding 8-week period in 2014 and 2015.

A single-center, quasi-experimental interrupted time series mixed-methods pilot study was used to investigate a pharmacist-led, multimodal educational intervention approach to improve human papillomavirus vaccination rates in the community.

During the 2014 control period, there were no human papillomavirus vaccines dispensed or administered according to the internal prescription dispensing software. In 2015, a total of 10 patients indicated that they were vaccinated, with 9 patients receiving their first dose and 1 patient receiving his or her second dose at the pharmacy. Pharmacist recommendation was the most reported education method for increasing patient awareness of the human papillomavirus vaccine (n = 10).

This study demonstrates pharmacist designed, educational interventions may impact human papillomavirus vaccination rates in the community. Further community-based research with larger sample sizes is warranted to verify these results. Due to the unique barriers to human papillomavirus vaccination, a multimodal and inter-professional approach such as the one presented here is warranted.