Identification of influencing factors and assessment of the impact of pharmacist-given vaccine education on the attitudes and behaviors of cancer patients towards adult vaccination

Intended vaccination rates with the pneumococcal vaccine in cancer patients have not been reached worldwide. This study was aimed to evaluate the impact of clinical pharmacist-provided education on pneumonia and pneumococcal vaccination for cancer patients on patients' attitudes, knowledge and vaccination rates and to determine opinions of physicians and nurses on vaccination in cancer patients. This prospective, randomized-controlled study was conducted in 2 university hospitals' medical oncology outpatient clinics between June 2019 and February 2021. Patients were assigned to the intervention group (received verbal and written education by a clinical pharmacist) and the control group (received a standard care). The patients in the intervention group were referred to physicians for pneumococcal vaccination after provision of education, and patients' vaccination status, knowledge, and attitudes were questioned after 3 months. A total of 228 patients (114 in control, 114 in intervention) were evaluated. At baseline, there was no difference between the groups in terms of the Vaccine Attitude Examination (VAX) Scale scores and the number of correct answers in the Vaccine Knowledge Questionnaire (p>0.05), while the intervention group had lower VAX scores (p=0.007) and higher number of correct answers (p<0.001) after the education. Three months after the education, 20.2% of patients in the intervention and 6.1% in the control groups were vaccinated (p=0.003). Not having influenza vaccine in the previous season (OR: 2.846, 95%CI, 1.102-7.352, p=0.031), and higher VAX scores (OR: 1.176, 95%CI, 1.095-1.263, p<0.001) were associated with non-vaccination behavior. It was determined that physicians and nurses generally recommend influenza (94.28% vs. 81.25%) and pneumococcal vaccines (88.57% vs. 47.92%). Vaccination rates and vaccine knowledge of patients have increased, and patients' negative attitudes towards vaccines has decreased by active involvement of a clinical pharmacist in immunization activities in adult population.