• Sarah A Buchan, Laura C Rosella, Michael Finkelstein, David Juurlink, Jennifer Isenor, Fawziah Marra, Anik Patel, Margaret L Russell, Susan Quach, Nancy Waite, Jeffrey C Kwong, and Public Health Agency of Canada/Canadian Institutes of Health Research Influenza Research Network (PCIRN) Program Delivery and Evaluation Group.
• Epidemiology Division (Buchan, Rosella, Kwong), Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto; Toronto Public Health (Finkelstein); Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (Juurlink, Kwong), Toronto, Ont.; College of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine (Isenor), Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS; Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Marra) and Faculty of Medicine (Patel), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC; Cumming School of Medicine (Russell), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; Public Health Ontario (Rosella, Quach, Kwong), Toronto, Ont.; School of Pharmacy (Waite), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ont.
• CMAJ. 2017 Jan 30; 189 (4): E146-E152.

BackgroundUptake of influenza vaccination in Canada remains suboptimal despite widespread public funding. To increase access, several provinces have implemented policies permitting pharmacists to administer influenza vaccines in community pharmacies. We examined the impact of such policies on the uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination in Canada.MethodsWe pooled data from the 2007-2014 cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey (n = 481 526). To determine the impact of influenza vaccine administration by pharmacists, we estimated the prevalence ratio for the association between the presence of a pharmacist policy and individual-level vaccine uptake using a modified Poisson regression model (dependent variable: vaccine uptake) with normalized weights while controlling for numerous health and sociodemographic factors.ResultsAcross all survey cycles combined, 28.8% of respondents reported receiving a seasonal influenza vaccine during the 12 months before survey participation. Introduction of a policy for pharmacist administration of influenza vaccine was associated with a modest increase in coverage (2.2%) and an individual's likelihood of uptake (adjusted prevalence ratio 1.05, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.08).InterpretationUptake of influenza immunization was modestly increased in Canadian jurisdictions that allowed pharmacists to administer influenza vaccines.© 2017 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors.

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