ArticleBMJ open2019
Relationship between sociodemographic factors and specialty destination of UK trainee doctors: a national cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Breaking stereotypes or making compromises? gender, income, and the unequal landscape of medical specialty choice.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- How do mature non-graduate students compare to the rest of the cohort in medical training? A UKMED study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Challenges in Surgical Training in the United Kingdom and Potential Solutions: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2026Review
- Specialty choices among UK medical students: certainty, confidence and key influences-a national survey (FAST Study).BMJ open · 2025Article
- Differential attainment in UK postgraduate medical examinations: examining the relationship between sociodemographic differences and examination performance.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Big data analysis: examination of the relationship between candidates' sociodemographic characteristics and performance in the UK's Membership of the Royal College of Physicians Part 1 examination.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2025Article
- The Golden Ticket? Widening Access in UK Medicine and the Making of an Emotional Proletariat.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Differential attainment at national selection for higher surgical training: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Equity Beyond Entry: A Capability Approach to Understanding Widening Participation in Medical Education.Perspectives on medical education · 2025Article
- Specialty choices among new generation of doctors - insights from a Polish survey study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Socioeconomic Disparities in Research Participation: Bias in Plastic Surgery Residency Match.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2024Article
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- Article
- Does medical education reform change who is selected? A national cross-sectional survey from China.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Willingness to practice medicine and related influential factors among medical undergraduates during COVID-19: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- How do the post-graduation outcomes of students from gateway courses compare to those from standard entry medicine courses at the same medical schools?BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Article
- Differential attainment, socioeconomic factors and surgical training.Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England · 2022Article
- Differential attainment at MRCS according to gender, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic factors: a retrospective cohort study.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2022Article
- The do's, don'ts and don't knows of redressing differential attainment related to race/ethnicity in medical schools.Perspectives on medical education · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesMany countries are driving forward policies to widen the socioeconomic profile of medical students and to train more medical students for certain specialties. However, little is known about how socioeconomic origin relates to specialty choice. Nor is there a good understanding of the relationship between academic performance and specialty choice. To address these gaps, our aim was to identify the relationship between socioeconomic background, academic performance and accepted offers into specialty training.
designLongitudinal, cohort study using data from the UK Medical Education Database (https://www.ukmed.ac.uk/).
participants6065 (60% females) UK doctors who accepted offers to a specialty training (residency) post after completing the 2-year generic foundation programme (UK Foundation Programme) between 2012 and 2014.
main outcome measuresΧ
resultsParticipants pursuing careers in more competitive specialties had significantly higher academic scores than colleagues pursuing less competitive ones. After controlling for the presence of multiple factors, trainees who came from families where no parent was educated to a degree level had statistically significant lower odds of choosing careers in medical specialties relative to general practice (OR=0.78, 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.92). Students who entered medical school as school leavers, compared with mature students, had odds 1.2 times higher (95% CI, 1.04 to 1.56) of choosing surgical specialties than general practice.
conclusionsThe data indicate a direct association between trainees' sociodemographic characteristics, academic ability and career choices. The findings can be used by medical school, training boards and workforce planners to inform recruitment and retention strategies.
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