(1138) Assessing Pharmacist-led Education on the Impact of HPV Vaccination in Men 18-45 Years Old

Objectives: The first objective of this project is to define a team-based approach to identify eligible candidates to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and increase the number of vaccinations. The second objective is to evaluate the impact of the team-based approach on the number of vaccinations administered. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection in the world. In most cases, HPV infections are asymptomatic and will clear naturally over the course of a few years, however, persistent infection can have devastating consequences. This virus is responsible for a wide range of cancers including oropharyngeal, anal, and penile cancers. Although the HPV vaccine has demonstrated high efficacy in preventing infection and precancerous lesions, the vaccination series has a low rate of completion in the United States, especially in the male population. There have been many reasons regarding the low rate of HPV vaccination in young males, including not receiving a recommendation from their doctor, the lack of information about the HPV vaccine, negative attitudes toward the HPV vaccine and the disease being overidentified as a “woman’s disease”. Pharmacists are established educators, advocates and qualified providers of vaccination. They are highly trained and required to achieve competency in all aspects of vaccine administration.

Methods: This will be a prospective study conducted at 12 pharmacy locations within a regional grocery-store pharmacy chain. Six pharmacies will be designated as an intervention location where education about HPV vaccine will be provided for eligible patients, while the remaining six pharmacies will be designated as a control location, where the standard of practice will occur. Eligible vaccine candidates are males between the ages of 18-45 years old who have not been vaccinated against HPV or did not complete the vaccination series. Dispensing data and the North Carolina Immunization Registry (NCIR) will be used to check for the patients’ prior vaccination status to foresee which patients are eligible and to ensure forthcoming conversation is worthwhile. In the intervention stores, the pharmacy team (pharmacists, technicians, and pharmacy interns) will be provided with one-on-one training with the primary investigator to appropriately identify and approach patients regarding HPV vaccination. The team members will be provided with a script to guide conversation with the patient. If the patient is interested in HPV vaccination, an education flyer would be handed to them with information about the vaccine, the importance of receiving it, side effects, and dosing schedule. If the patient agrees, the pharmacy team will obtain the necessary information, and administer the vaccine. If the patient is unable to get the vaccine the same day, then an appointment will scheduled within the pharmacy system’s vaccine scheduler for a time that is convenient for the patient. Data to be collected at the intervention stores will include patient demographics, store demographics, vaccination status using NCIR and if the patient declined to receive the HPV vaccination, to provide a reason. Data to be collected in the control stores would be patient demographics, store demographics, and assessing the normal standard of practice.

Results: Institutional Board Review is anticipated for October 2023. Data collection will occur from November 2023 to December 2023 with data analysis conducted from January 2024 to February 2024. The target patient population is 50 patients per store (300 total).

Conclusions: With known high efficacy of preventing HPV related cancers and infections, it is crucial that pharmacists educate the community about the HPV vaccine. The results of this project may potentially increase the rate of HPV vaccination in the male population and help with our pharmacists reach a level of comfortability initiating conversations about the importance of this vaccine.