Institutional factors associated with global health education across US pharmacy schools

The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between institutional factors and offerings of global health education opportunities in pharmacy schools.

Data for this project came from a review of international advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) and global course offerings for US pharmacy schools conducted between February 1 and March 31, 2014. These data were merged with data on institutional factors which may influence a school's offering of APPEs or courses. Institutional factors included tuition, class size, academic medical center affiliation, year established, and others. Multivariable regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between individual institutional factors and APPEs and global courses.

In multivariable adjusted models, older and more established schools had a larger percent of the graduating class with an international APPE (9.5% vs. 2.6%, p < 0.01) and a larger number of international APPEs (3.8 vs. 1.4, p < 0.01) than schools founded after 1980. Schools with higher tuition (>$25,000/year) had, on average, a larger percent of their graduating class with an international APPE (7.9% vs. 3.1%, p < 0.05), a larger number of international APPEs (3.7 vs. 1.5, p < 0.01), and more interprofessional international APPEs (3.1 vs. 0.7, p < 0.001). There were more course offerings at older schools (1.1 vs. 0.4, p < 0.05) and those with higher tuition (1.3 vs. 0.4, p < 0.01).

More established schools and those with higher tuition appeared to have more robust global offerings. Schools can consider local opportunities to provide global experiential and didactic experiences, which may reduce the financial burden of global programs.