A Pilot Study to Examine the Perspectives of Pharmacy Students towards Adding a Nutrition Course in Pharmacy Degree Curriculum

Abstract

Today's pharmacists are likely to encounter questions about nutritional products sold in the pharmacy. This is due, in part, to the increased number of pharmacies in grocery stores and the availability of pharmacists. However, many pharmacists report that they lack nutrition knowledge and believe the best time to educate pharmacists about nutrition is during pharmacy school.PURPOSEThe purpose of this study was to determine if pharmacy students realize the importance of nutrition education during pharmacy school and if a background in nutrition education or pharmacy‐related experience influences student's responses.METHODSBoth male and female students from nine different pharmacy schools from southern part of India [IND, n=225, age: 18–34y, male: n=74 (32.9%), female: 151 (67.1%)] and two pharmacy schools (Alabama and Illinois) from the United States [USA, n=95, age: 18–45y, male: n=23 (24.2%), female: 72 (75.8%)] participated in this study.RESULTSThe response rate from IND was 97.0% (seven students did not complete survey) and USA was 100% (no incomplete surveys). When the students were asked about their nutrition education, 77.3% of students from IND and 55.8% students from the USA reported never taking a nutrition course. Students who took a nutrition course had to take it as an elective. While 37.8% students from IND and 93.7% students from USA had pharmacy‐related experience, 6.7% of students from IND and 3.2% students from USA said they were very confident in handling nutrition‐related questions. Regardless of previous nutrition education and pharmacy‐related experience, 88.0% of students from IND and 70.5% of students from the USA, believed that nutrition education is important and should be incorporated in the pharmacy school curriculum. Among those who took a nutrition course, 81.8% of students from IND and 82.9% from USA believed that a nutrition course should be incorporated into the pharmacy school curriculum. When pharmacy‐related experience was considered, 92.9% from IND and 73.3% from USA also believed that a nutrition course should be incorporated into the pharmacy school curriculum.CONCLUSIONResults from this study suggest that a nutrition course should be incorporated into the pharmacy school curriculum, regardless of past nutrition education or pharmacy‐related experience. A limitation of this study was that only students from the southern part of the India and two pharmacy schools in the United States were surveyed. Additional data is needed from other pharmacy schools in order to generalize the results of this study and influence curriculum changes for pharmacy schools.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.