Impact of a Simulation Exercise on Pharmacy Student Attitude toward Poverty

Objective. To evaluate the impact of a simulation on pharmacy student attitudes toward poverty using the Attitude toward Poverty (ATP) Short Form scale.Methods. Second-year pharmacy students participated in the 3-hour Missouri Association for Community Action Poverty Simulation. Students completed a survey of the ATP Short Form scale prior to and following participation in the simulation.Results. Significant improvements in attitude were noted in 15 of 21 ATP Short Form items. Improvements in the stigma and structural domains were significant while improvement in the personal deficiency domain was not significant.Conclusions. This poverty simulation exercise positively altered pharmacy student attitudes toward poverty. When combined with didactic and experiential curriculum, this simulation may enhance student achievement of the 2013 Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education (CAPE) outcome subdomain of cultural sensitivity.     

Assessing Retention in a Free Diabetes Clinic

The PATH Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, is a free clinic for uninsured patients with uncontrolled diabetes. In its first 22 months, more than 25% of patients were lost to follow-up. This report shares reasons for patients becoming lost to follow-up. Investigators used patient records for quantitative analyses and phone interviews for qualitative analysis. Sociodemographic factors were not associated with patients’ likelihood of becoming lost to follow-up. Qualitative results show that these patients had uncertainty regarding appointment dates, complicated life circumstances, and transportation barriers. Results indicate that social interventions may improve patient compliance and retention and should be tested.     

Differences in employment and income poverty between people with and without disabilities in South Africa

There is a substantial body of literature that confirms the cyclical relationship between poverty and disability. However, while there are studies that have sought to understand the relationship between income poverty and disability and how disability intersects with other factors to influence poverty, most do not offer insight into how this relationship is shaped – particularly given the limited availability of panel data. Furthermore, there is limited research on the effect of social grants and employment on income poverty, as well as how disability intersects with other factors to shape poverty. Guided by the capabilities approach, the focus of this article was therefore on the dynamics of the relationship between disability and two aspects of poverty, namely, income and employment, which are critical to the realization of capabilities. The findings show that people with disabilities in South Africa are more likely to be income poor and remain so over time, but that social grants serve to alleviate income poverty. Income poverty is explained in part by the fact that people with disabilities are less likely to be employed and that when they are employed they face significant wage gaps. Disability also intersects with race, sex and geographic location to shape income poverty in ways that have important implications for policy and programme development.