Perceived HIV and PrEP education among medical and pharmacy students: a cross-sectional study

Expanding access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) requires that future health professionals receive comprehensive education about HIV and PrEP during their academic training. The purpose of this study was to examine medical and pharmacy students’ perceived HIV and PrEP education. From November 2022–January 2023, 385 medical and pharmacy students in New York State completed a cross-sectional survey assessing their perceived levels of HIV and PrEP education received during their academic training. Bivariate analyses examined group differences and multivariable ordinal regression models estimated adjusted odds ratios (AOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for correlates of perceived HIV and PrEP education. Overall, 71.95% and 64.42% of participants reported discussing HIV risk and PrEP, respectively, during training. In adjusted analyses, pharmacy students had higher odds of reporting greater perceived HIV (AOR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.35–3.04) and PrEP (AOR = 3.41, 95% CI: 2.23–5.22) education compared to medical students. Relative to first-year students, second-year (HIV: AOR = 4.97, 95% CI: 2.92–8.42; PrEP: AOR = 5.42, 95% CI: 3.20–9.17), third-year (HIV AOR = 10.23, 95% CI: 6.04–17.31; PrEP: AOR = 8.38, 95% CI: 5.00-14.06), and fourth-year+ (HIV: AOR = 6.73, 95% CI: 3.91–11.56; PrEP: AOR = 10.87, 95% CI: 6.35–18.61) had higher odds of reporting greater perceived education. Cisgender women had lower odds of reporting greater perceived HIV (AOR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.43–0.91) and PrEP (AOR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.35–0.75) education compared to cisgender men. Findings highlight opportunities to strengthen HIV and PrEP education to address variability in educational experiences and better prepare future health professionals to care for communities most likely to benefit from PrEP.