Inclusion of health equity language in recruitment materials for postgraduate pharmacy residencies

The study objective was to analyze the use of health equity (HE)- and social determinants of health (SDOH)-related language within pharmacy residency websites and recruitment materials.

Using the ASHP residency directory of 2022, a randomly selected sample of postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) and PGY1/PGY2 programs from each state were analyzed. After search terms were selected from HE/SDOH resources, each program's residency-specific webpages (RSWs) and institution-specific webpages (ISWs) were searched and given a score based on the frequency of identified terms. The primary outcome was the number of programs with at least one identified instance of HE/SDOH terms. Additional outcomes included the frequency of HE/SDOH terms on ISWs or RSWs and program score distribution. Outcomes were also evaluated among programs in medically underserved areas (MUAs).

Three hundred eighteen programs were included, of which 205 (64%) included HE/SDOH language within RSWs, ISWs, or both. Of these 205 programs, 126 programs (61%) included language only on ISWs. The number of programs that only had one instance of HE/SDOH terms on either category of webpages, or had a score of 1, was 128 programs (40.2% of the total of 318 programs). Of the 111 programs in MUAs (35%), 66 (59.5%) included HE/SDOH language within the ISWs.

Most evaluated programs, including those in MUAs, lacked language specifically identifying their focus and work around HE/SDOH within their residency promotional materials.