Development of a questionnaire to measure public perceptions of the role of community pharmacy in public health ( PubPharmQ )

James, Delyth H., Rapado, Rose, Brown, Sarah L., Kember, Joanne, Hodson, Karen L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9739-5445 and Prior, Amie-Louise 2023. Development of a questionnaire to measure public perceptions of the role of community pharmacy in public health ( PubPharmQ ). Pharmacy 11 (5) , 141. 10.3390/pharmacy11050141

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Abstract

Background: Community pharmacies are well placed to provide public-health interventions within primary care settings. This study aimed to establish the general public’s perceptions of community pharmacy-based public-health services in the UK by designing a structured questionnaire to assess the barriers and facilitators to optimizing this role. Methods: A standardized questionnaire was developed informed by the literature, additional semi-structured interviews, and synthesis of key findings with the authors’ previous research based on data generated from eight focus groups. The original 42-item questionnaire was distributed online from May to June 2021 via social media platforms to capture the views of non-regular pharmacy users. Following exploratory factor analysis, and Cronbach’s alpha analysis, total Likert scale response scores were calculated. Results: Of the 306 responders, 76.8% were female with a mean age of 34.5 years (SD = 15.09). The most prevalent pharmacy use reported was 1–2 times a year (28.1%). Exploratory factor analysis revealed four scales: Expertise, Role in Public Health, Privacy, and Relationship (18 items) with acceptable internal consistency and good face and content validity. Awareness of well-established pharmacy services was high; however, responders demonstrated poor awareness of public-health-related services and low recognition of pharmacy expertise for this role. A lack of an established relationship with community pharmacies and privacy concerns were also perceived barriers. Conclusions: Based on these findings, considerable effort is needed to increase public awareness and address these concerns if strategic plans to utilize community pharmacy in the delivery of public-health policy are to be successful. The PubPharmQ provides a novel, structured questionnaire to measure the public’s perceptions of community pharmacy’s role in public health.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Pharmacy
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	MDPI
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 October 2023
Date of Acceptance:	5 September 2023
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2023 18:07
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/163096

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