Health literacy of student pharmacists

Abstract

Introduction: The primary purpose of this study was to assess the health literacy levels of doctorate of pharmacy students. A secondary objective was to determine if a correlation exists between age, degree prior to pharmacy school, work experience, and health literacy status among these students.

Methods: Participants were first year doctorate of pharmacy students at an accredited college of pharmacy in the Southwestern United States. The design was cross-sectional. Health literacy scores were collected using the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) in English. Health literacy was dichotomized with a score of 0-3 indicating inadequate and 4-6 indicating adequate. A two sample t-test or Fisher's exact test was used to compare cofactors between health literacy groups.

Results: Of the 72 first year students, 64 (88.9%) participated. The median NVS score was 5 (lower quartile 5, upper quartile 6). Nearly 90% of students (n = 57) obtained a score of ''always adequate literacy.'' Student age, having a degree before pharmacy school, nor healthcare work experience were significantly different between the two groups.

Discussion: If students enter pharmacy school with a high level of health literacy, they may have difficulties relating to and appropriately educating patients with low health literacy. Knowing this information, we can tailor our teaching about health literacy in curriculums to include strategies that assist students to understand what patients with low heath literacy may experience when interacting with the healthcare system.

Conclusions: Nearly all student pharmacists in the study displayed high health literacy and no correlations to collected characteristics were noted.

Keywords: Health literacy; Pharmacy education; Pharmacy students.