Driving factors of community pharmacist weight management service: A structural equation modeling approach

Abstract

Background: Even though the effectiveness of community pharmacists in helping customers to reduce weight has been evident, few pharmacists provided weight management services (WMS). To drive community pharmacist WMS provision, factors affecting their intention and WMS provision were important to be investigated.

Objective: The present study aimed to explore relationships among pharmacist authority, perceived customer obstruction, WMS performance support, obstacles, and facilitators with intention to provide WMS and WMS rovision using structural equation modeling (WMS.

Method: Self-administered questionnaires were utilized to collect data from 302 Thai community pharmacists from December 2022 to March 2023. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to explore the influencing factors on pharmacist WMS intention and WMS provision.

Results: Pharmacist authority (r = 0.35), WMS performance support (r = 0.24), and facilitators (r = 0.22) were significantly correlated with community pharmacist WMS provision. Pharmacist authority (r = 0.50), facilitators (r = 0.46), and WMS performance support (r = 0.42) were significantly correlated with community pharmacist intention to provide WMS e structural equation model (SEM), pharmacist authority (β = 0.34) and intention (β = 0.16) significantly influenced WMS provision (R² = 0.20). Authority (β = 0.49) and WMS performance support (β = 0.28) significantly influenced pharmacist intention to WMS (R² = 0.42). The model from empirical data indicated a good fit with the hypothetical model (p-value = 0.000, Comparatively Fit Index = 0.9, and Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.878).

Conclusion: Pharmacist authority had direct effects with both their intention to provide WMS and WMS provision. WMS performance support had a direct effect on intention to provide WMS and an indirect effect on WMS provision. Facilitators also had significant correlations with intention to provide WMS and WMS provision.

Keywords: Authority; Community pharmacist; Competency; Pharmacist intention; Weight management service.