https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9042-4290
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ABSTRACT
Background
Under-utilisation of immunisation services remains a public health challenge. Pharmacists act as facilitators and increasingly as immunisers, yet relatively little robust evidence exists of the impact elicited on patient health outcome and vaccination uptake.
Objective
To evaluate the influence of pharmacist interventions on public vaccination rate.
Methods
SCOPUS, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched from inception to April 2023 to retrieve non- and randomised controlled clinical trials (RCTs). Studies were excluded if no comparator group to pharmacist involvement was reported. Data extraction, risk of bias assessments, and meta-analyses using random-effect models, were performed.
Results
Four RCTs and 15 non-RCTs, encompassing influenza, pneumococcal, herpes zoster, and tetanus-diphtheria and pertussis vaccine types, and administered in diverse settings including community pharmacies, were included. Pooled effect sizes revealed that, as compared to usual care, pharmacists, regardless of their intervention, improved the overall immunisation uptake by up to 51% [RR 1.51 (1.28, 1.77)] while immunisation frequency doubled when pharmacists acted specifically as advocators [RR 2.09 (1.42, 3.07)].
Conclusion
While the evidence for pharmacist immunisers was mixed, their contribution to immunisation programmes boosted public vaccination rate. Pharmacists demonstrated leadership and acquired indispensable advocator roles in the community and hospital settings. Future research could explore the depth of engagement and hence the extent of influence on immunisation uptake.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA for its continuous support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author contributions
MLF conceptualised and supervised the project. MHAR and SHMD developed the search strategy and conducted the search. SHA and ZZ performed data extraction and thematic analyses. MSRH and SHMD performed the analyses. MHAR, SHMD, SHA, MSRH and ZZ drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material section of this article.
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.