Exploring beliefs about pneumococcal vaccination in a predominantly older African American population: the Pharmacists’ Pneumonia Prevention Program (PPPP)

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To assess the association of the Pharmacists’ Pneumonia Prevention Program (PPPP) with changes in beliefs related to pneumonia vaccination (PV) in a predominately older African American population.

Methods: PPPP was an educational intervention delivered using a senior center model of care consisting of a formal pharmacist presentation, live skit, small group action planning, and optional PV. A 15-item instrument assessed participants’ beliefs at baseline, post-test, and three months across four domains: pharmacists and pharmacies, vaccination, pneumococcal disease, and physicians. Friedman tests and pairwise Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to determine the statistical significance of the mean change in belief responses across timepoints.

Results: 190 older adults participated; the sample was majority female (76.3%) and African American (80.5%), and had a mean age of 74.3 years. Statistically significant improvements in beliefs at post-test were observed in the following domains: pharmacists and pharmacies, vaccination, and the pneumococcal disease; however, some of these gains were incompletely sustained at three months.

Conclusion: PPPP positively impacted beliefs post-program regarding the pneumococcal disease, pharmacists and pharmacies, and vaccination; however, sustained efforts may be needed to reinforce these gains.

Policy implications: Support for pharmacist educational services in senior centers should be considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Pneumonia vaccine
• pharmacist education program
• senior center model of care
• vaccination education
• older adults
• beliefs

Acknowledgements

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Merck Sharp and Dohme [grant number MISP #50926].