Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: One-third of all medical students attend a community college (CC) on their path to medical school. The objective of this study was to examine the association between CC participation and initial specialty of interest among US allopathic medical students. METHODS: We performed a national cross-sectional study of allopathic medical students who completed the 2012 Association of American Medical Colleges’ Matriculating Student Questionnaire. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: A total of 9,885 medical student respondents were included in the study sample, consisting of 7,035 (71%) non-CC pathway, and 2,850 (29%) CC pathway participants. CC pathway participants were more likely to express intent to specialize in family medicine (272/2,850 [10%] vs 463/7,035 [7%], P<.001), compared to those on the non-CC path. CC pathway participants had higher odds of intent to specialize in family medicine (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.32; 95% CI 1.13-1.56, P<0.001), compared to those on the non-CC path. Women, independent of college pathway, were nearly two times more likely to express an intention to specialize in family medicine, and three times more likely to express an intention to specialize in pediatrics than men. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students who used a CC pathway are more likely to have intentions to specialize in family medicine, compared to those on the non-CC path.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 759-764 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Family medicine |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding Support: Dr Talamantes was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Institutional National Research Service Award (NRSA) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), grant no. T32HP19001, and the UCLA and Charles Drew University (CDU), Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (RCMAR/CHIME) under NIH/NIA Grant P30-AG021684, and from the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) under NIH/NCATS Grant Number UL1TR000124. Gerardo Moreno received support from a National Institute on Aging (K23 AG042961-01) Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award, the American Federation for Aging Research, and the UCLA Resource Center for Minority Aging Research/Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (RCMAR/CHIME) under NIH/ NIA grant P30AG021684. The content does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIA or the NIH.
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