Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27855088›Full record

Observational studyBMJ open2016

Does the UKCAT predict performance on exit from medical school? A national cohort study.

R K MacKenzie, J A Cleland, D Ayansina, S Nicholson

Open access · goldAbstract readObservational Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Observational study in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
2.4field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

R K MacKenzieInstitute of Education for Medical and Dental Sciences, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-4754-5369
J A ClelandInstitute of Education for Medical and Dental Sciences, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
D AyansinaDepartment of Medical Statistics, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
S NicholsonCentre for Medical Education, Institute of Health Sciences Education, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
University of Aberdeen · GBQueen Mary University of London · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesMost UK medical programmes use aptitude tests during student selection, but large-scale studies of predictive validity are rare. This study assesses the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT: http://www.ukcat.ac.uk), and 4 of its subscales, along with individual and contextual socioeconomic background factors, as predictors of performance during, and on exit from, medical school.

methodsThis was an observational study of 6294 medical students from 30 UK medical programmes who took the UKCAT from 2006 to 2008, for whom selection data from the UK Foundation Programme (UKFPO), the next stage of UK medical education training, were available in 2013. We included candidate demographics, UKCAT (cognitive domains; total scores), UKFPO Educational Performance Measure (EPM) and national exit situational judgement test (SJT). Multilevel modelling was used to assess relationships between variables, adjusting for confounders.

resultsThe UKCAT-as a total score and in terms of the subtest scores-has significant predictive validity for performance on the UKFPO EPM and SJT. UKFPO performance was also affected positively by female gender, maturity, white ethnicity and coming from a higher social class area at the time of application to medical school An inverse pattern was seen for a contextual measure of school, with those attending fee-paying schools performing significantly more weakly on the EPM decile, the EPM total and the total UKFPO score, but not the SJT, than those attending other types of school.

conclusionsThis large-scale study, the first to link 2 national databases-UKCAT and UKFPO, has shown that UKCAT is a predictor of medical school outcome. The data provide modest supportive evidence for the UKCAT's role in student selection. The conflicting relationships of socioeconomic contextual measures (area and school) with outcome adds to wider debates about the limitations of these measures, and indicates the need for further research.

Indexed as

Aptitude TestsClinical CompetenceEducation, MedicalSchool Admission CriteriaSchools, MedicalAdolescentAdultCohort StudiesDatabases, FactualFemaleHumansJudgmentMaleSocioeconomic FactorsStudents, MedicalUnited KingdomEDUCATION & TRAINING (see Medical Education & Training)MEDICAL EDUCATION & TRAINING

Identifiers

PMID27855088
PMCPMC5073508
OpenAlexW2529190094

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.