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Factors affecting pharmacists' pediatric asthma counseling.

OBJECTIVE
To explore various factors that may influence community pharmacists' pediatric asthma counseling.


DESIGN
Cross-sectional.


SETTING
Maryland from September 2002 through March 2003.


PARTICIPANTS
Random sample of 400 community pharmacists.


INTERVENTION
Mail survey.


MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Pharmacists' attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, intention to provide pediatric asthma counseling, and reported counseling using the theory of planned behavior as a framework; demographic and pharmacy characteristics.


RESULTS
98 of 389 (25%) eligible pharmacists responded. Most acknowledged the importance of providing asthma counseling to children (54%) or caregivers (68%). However, only a small number reported demonstrating to children or caregivers or asking them to demonstrate how to use antiasthmatic medications. Multivariate logistic regressions revealed that intention to counsel was a significant predictor of providing counseling for children or caregivers (odds ratio [OR], 3.95 and 3.09, respectively). Intention to counsel children was significantly associated with subjective norm (OR, 1.88) and perceived ease of counseling (OR, 1.48); intention to counsel caregivers was significantly associated with perceived ease (OR, 1.45). Pharmacists also reported the following barriers that made counseling difficult: lack of time, lack of parent's interest, and lack of placebo devices useful for demonstration of inhalation technique.


CONCLUSION
Despite a positive attitude toward providing asthma counseling, the majority of pharmacists reported not fully engaging in counseling. A number of barriers to counseling were reported that, if targeted, could improve the management of pediatric asthma through pharmacist-initiated counseling.