Pharmacy students’ personal health practices and perceptions on lifestyle medicine

ABSTRACT

Pharmacists are accessible and positioned to facilitate health behavior change among patients with chronic diseases. The readiness of pharmacy students to practice lifestyle medicine is unclear. Doctor of Pharmacy students were surveyed on personal characteristics, health behaviors, and opinions on lifestyle counselling in September 2016. Ninety-three out of 359 (26%) students participated. A greater percentage of students with body mass index less than 25 kg/m² responded that substance abuse counselling was highly relevant to their intended practices as compared to students classified as overweight or obese (p <.05). Over two-thirds of students without health care-related work experience indicated that weight management (p < .05) and alcohol abuse counselling (p < .05) were highly relevant to their intended practices. Student-specific factors are associated with perceptions on whether particular lifestyle medicine topics are relevant to their intended practices. Pharmacy programs can use study results to identify curricular areas where lifestyle medicine should be further emphasized.

KEYWORDS:

• Health practices
• lifestyle medicine
• lifestyle counselling
• pharmacy education
• pharmacy practice

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Lisa Karpel (University of North Texas Health Science Center) for assistance in creating and distributing the online survey tool.

Disclosure Statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.