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and evaluating published literature. This is evidenced by the
Board of Pharmacy Specialties certification examinations
including statistics as a core concept of the exam.10 For
residents to have future success and confidence in performing research, they must gain experience with statistical
manipulations and software. While there is significant literature detailing residents' lack of preparedness in biostatistics, no information is currently available about what
specific statistical guidance is frequently provided by residency programs.
This study addressed 2 primary goals: (1) to describe the
breadth of statistical training across postgraduate year 1
(PGY1) pharmacy residency programs and (2) to examine
the relationship between the rigor of statistical training and
self-reported residency publication rates as well as residency
program directors' (RPDs) confidence in residents' abilities
to become independent investigators after their residency
training.

Methods
A comprehensive list of email addresses for PGY1 RPDs
was obtained from the ASHP online residency directory in
December 2015. The list included all ASHP residencies that
were accredited or in candidate status for accreditation. An
email invitation was sent on April 11, 2016, to each RPD to
participate in the study survey. Two reminder emails were
sent out, and the survey was closed on May 13, 2016.
The 13-item survey, administered through Opinio (Oslo,
Norway), included questions regarding the residency program location, size, institution type, statistical training methods provided to and desired for residents, publication rate of
residency research projects, RPD's confidence in residents'
statistical manipulation abilities, and unique aspects of the
program.
The email announcement provided contact information
for the primary investigator and stated that, by completing
the survey, participants were granting consent to be included
in the survey. All information was collected and stored anonymously in accordance with institutional procedure. All
respondents who answered the survey were included in this
study for analysis. The University of New Mexico Health
Science Center Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved
this study.

Hospital Pharmacy 53(2)
components analysis, repeated-measures analyses, mixed
modeling, Poisson regression) were classified as providing
complex statistics. Programs were classified as providing
introductory statistics if the highest level of training was
descriptive statistics (eg, means, frequencies to characterize
study population) or basic univariate statistics to compare
means or proportions (eg, chi-square, t test, analysis of variance [ANOVA], correlation). Programs that only provided
study design and database building training were grouped
together, and the final group was programs that did not provide any statistical training.
RPD confidence in residents' statistical abilities was
assessed on a 5-point Likert-type scale with "5" indicating
complete confidence and "1" indicating no confidence. On
the premise that after completion of a PGY1 residency, RPDs
should have at least average or greater than average confidence in the resident's statistical ability; the responses were
dichotomized as low confidence (category 1 or 2) and high
confidence (categories 3-5). Other variables were also
dichotomized for analysis such as age of the program (>5 vs
≤5 years), hospital beds (<250 vs ≥250), the presence of a
postgraduate year 2 (PGY2) residency program, use of statistician (<50% vs ≥50%), and resident publication rate
(<50% vs ≥50%).
Descriptive statistics were used in this study with median
for nonnormally distributed continuous data. Categorical
data were compared using chi-square. Predictors of RPD
confidence and self-reported publication rate were analyzed
via multivariate logistic regression with only variables with
P < .05 in the univariate model included in the multivariate
analysis. SPSS (IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York) was
used for statistical analysis.

Results
Of the 1054 residency programs included in the survey, 202
(19.2%) responded. Nine programs (0.9%) reported having
no PGY1 or PGY2 candidates in the 2014-2015 cycle:
However, all 9 respondents completed the survey in its
entirety with additional comments that were reflective of
resident training. The decision was made to include these
respondents in the analysis. Overall, the included programs
were geographically diverse across the United States as represented in Figure 1.

Statistical Analysis

Programs Characteristics

Type of statistical training residents received was placed into
4 groups based on the highest complexity of statistical training provided to residents. Programs that provided training in
basic multivariate statistics (eg, multivariable linear regression, multiple logistic regression, analysis of covariance
[ANCOVA]) or any more advanced statistical techniques (eg,
nonparametric tests, polychotomous regression, principal

The program data of survey respondents are shown in detail
in Table 1. The respondents had a diverse mix of how long
the program has been established as well as the size of the
institution. Nearly half the residency programs were through
privately owned institutions. Of the 202 respondents, 77
(38.1%) had at least 1 PGY2 program associated with the
PGY1.

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