Objectives — To investigate community pharmacists' perception of Pharmacy Practice research and to identify perceived barriers preventing their participation in research. Method — A self‐completed postal questionnaire, including 29 attitudinal statements was analysed using factor analysis. Setting — The study group comprised pharmacists working in all 651 community pharmacies in East London and Essex. Key findings — The response rate was 60 per cent. Factor analysis revealed five factors comprising correlated statements. The majority of respondents perceived community based practice research to be important and relevant to them and to the future development of community pharmacy. Fifty‐four per cent agreed that they were prepared to participate in practice research, although 66 per cent of respondents felt their daily activities precluded this. Payment for a research related activity was a major issue impacting on their likely participation, with 72 per cent of pharmacists agreeing that they would only participate if paid to do so. Pharmacists' employment status, ie, whether employee or proprietor, was also associated with willingness and ability to undertake research. Conclusion — Community pharmacists have a positive attitude towards practice research, and under the appropriate circumstances many would be prepared to participate in research.

Community pharmacy in England has played an increasing role in public health the last 20 years. [1] Recent policy changes, since the introduction of the NHS contractual framework in April 2005, [2] have moved pharmacy towards a more healthfocused approach. The development of public health roles enables pharmacists to provide services beyond supply of medicines such as advice about healthy lifestyles. Pharmacists work at the heart of communities making them ideally placed to promote health and deliver services to improve the health of patients and the public. The aim of this study was to evaluate the views of members of the public concerning their use, and the acceptability of, community pharmacy services designed to improve public health. Medway School of Pharmacy Ethics Committee granted ethical approval for this study.A series of street-survey structured interviews were conducted in shopping centres and High Streets at four locations in the south-east of England during a 4 week period.Respondents were asked ten questions (open and closed), regarding their health; the pharmacy services they had used; and, the services they would consider using. The inclusion criteria were adults willing to participate and the exclusion criteria were children and young people under 18 years of age. A sample of 384 adults was required (95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval) to be representative of the adult population in England. Data was subject to descriptive statistics and content analysis.A total of 480 people were interviewed from 2,416 approached, a response rate of approximately 20%. Respondents were 72% (n = 345) female and 28% (n = 135) male; 4% aged 18/19 years; 49% ages between 20-59; 35% 60-74 and 12% over 75 years. The respondents stated ethnicity was 80% White-British, 8% Asian-British, 10% Black-African/Caribbean and 2% refused to answer. The usage of pharmacies by respondents was exceptionally high, 99% (n = 476). People aged more than 75 years reported the highest regular use of pharmacy (27%, n = 16) compared with only 11% (n = 2) of younger adults (18-19 years). Only 2% (n = 1) of people over 75 said they very rarely used pharmacies compared with 39%, (n = 7) of young adults aged 18-19 years.Supply of prescribed medication to people over 60 years (84%, n = 189) and sales of over the counter medicine to people less than 60 years (64%, n = 164) were the most frequently used pharmacy services. When asked to state, from a list, which other pharmacy services they had accessed 44% (n = 210) had asked pharmacists for advice; 8% (n = 37) medicines use review; 8% blood pressure testing; 7% (n = 33) minor ailments scheme; and 3% each for stop smoking, vaccination, emergency contraception, and cholesterol testing. Services they indicated they would be willing to use were vaccinations 31% (n = 61); blood pressure testing; 30% (n = 59); cholesterol testing (28%, n = 54); minor ailments scheme (11%, n = 21); 10% each for diabetes testing and stop smoking; and 6% (n = 12) for weight management.Whilst it can be seen...