Background: While pharmacists should be aware of gender and sex-related differences in treatment related decisions, this is not a required doctor of pharmacy curricular component. A regional pilot study demonstrated that approximately half of pharmacy practice faculty discussed these differences in their content area. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of inclusion of gender and sex-related differences on a national level in doctor of pharmacy curricula and to determine if faculty are comfortable teaching the topic.
Methods: An electronic message with a link to an online survey was distributed to 7250 faculty members at 139 colleges of pharmacy. The survey remained open for three weeks and potential participants received weekly email reminders. The survey was voluntary, and responses were de-identified.
Results: Overall, 641 faculty participated in the survey (8.8% response rate). Most respondents indicated that they do not teach about gender or sex-related differences (54.9%). Of those faculty reporting teaching gender and/or sex-related differences, 28% indicated that it was addressed in one clinical topic, while some (7.7%) indicated that the content was included in up to five topics. Half of faculty (53.6%) indicated that they believe this topic is somewhat important.
Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that gender and sex-related differences are not adequately addressed in current pharmacy curricula.
Keywords: Gender differences; Pharmacokinetics; Pharmacy education; Sex differences; Women's health.
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