OBJECTIVES: Long-term consistent engagement and retention in care for many persons living with HIV (PLWH), which is critical for optimal health outcomes, depends greatly on positive provider interactions. Pharmacists, the last healthcare professional interacting with PLWH prior to starting therapy are strategically positioned to promote PLWH health outcomes. We assessed psychometric properties of a scale to measure pharmacist’s perspectives that could promote or inhibit Adherence Promotion Activities (APA) in ambulatory settings.

METHODS: A 10-item instrument was developed, and it’s psychometric properties assessed from surveys of 184 ambulatory pharmacists in 37 States. Negative worded items were reverse-coded. We conducted psychometric tests interactively: Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to identify factor structure, internal reliability using Cronbach’s alpha (α), and known-groups validity using a validated APA scale.

RESULTS: One item was removed after EFA. Remaining 9 items generated two factors: positive perspective [loadings 0.49-0.82; α=0.84] and negative perspective: [loadings 0.66-0.75; α=0.75], with a combined explained variance of 61.5%. The 6-item positive perspective scale (items: better quality patient care, higher pharmacist involvement) score ranged from 8-30 (mean 26.7, SD 3.5). The 3-item negative perspective scale (items: additional workload, no organizational profitability) score ranged from 3-15 (mean 11.5, SD 3.0). For known-groups validity, HIV-certified pharmacists had comparatively higher and statistically significant negative perspective score (i.e., lower negative perspective) compared to non-certified pharmacists (1.63, p<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in scores for positive perspective scale by HIV Certification status (1.10, p=0.06).

CONCLUSIONS: The 6-item positive perspective scale and 3-item negative perspective scale had strong psychometric properties including construct and known-group validity, and high internal consistency. However, additional research is needed to assess other psychometric properties including test-retest reliability and external validity.