ArticleBMJ open2023
Socio-demographic profile of medical students in Aotearoa, New Zealand (2016-2020): a nationwide cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Socioeconomic and economic factors affecting access and progression in medical schools: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of educational evaluation for health professions · 2026Pooled it
- Quality of life among medical students: Analysis of pooled cohorts in the prospective POLLEK cohort study.Journal of public health research · 2026Article
- Predictors of rural medical practice in Aotearoa New Zealand: a national outcomes prospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Systematic identification of existing core outcomes related to preterm birth and the development of a core outcome set for preterm birth in Aotearoa New Zealand.Pediatric investigation · 2025Article
- Māori Medical Student and Physician Exposure to Racism, Discrimination, Harassment, and Bullying.JAMA network open · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine the socio-demographic profile of all students enrolled to study medicine in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). DESIGN AND
settingObservational, cross-sectional study. Data were sought from the Universities of Auckland and Otago, the two NZ tertiary education institutions providing medical education, for the period 2016-2020 inclusive. These data are a subset of the larger project 'Mirror on Society' examining all regulated health professional enrolled students in NZ. VARIABLES OF INTEREST: gender, citizenship, ethnicity, rural classification, socioeconomic deprivation, school type and school socioeconomic scores. NZ denominator population data (18-29 years) were sourced from the 2018 census.
participants2858 students were enrolled to study medicine between 2016 and 2020 inclusive.
resultsThere were more women (59.1%) enrolled to study medicine than men (40.9%) and the majority (96.5%) were in the 18-29 years age range. Māori students (rate ratio 0.92; 95% CI 0.84 to 1.0) and Pacific students (rate ratio 0.85; 95% CI 0.73 to 0.98) had lower overall rates of enrolment. For all ethnic groups, irrespective of rural or urban origin, enrolment rates had a nearly log-linear negative relationship with increasing socioeconomic deprivation. Enrolments were lower for students from rural areas compared with those from urban areas (rate ratio 0.53; 95% CI 0.46-0.61). Overall NZ's medical students do not reflect the diverse communities they will serve, with under-representation of Māori and Pacific students and students who come from low socioeconomic and rural backgrounds.
conclusionsTo meaningfully address these issues, we suggest the following policy changes: universities commit and act to Indigenise institutional ways of knowing and being; selection policies are reviewed to ensure that communities in greatest need of doctors are prioritised for enrolment into medicine (specifically, the impact of low socioeconomic status should be factored into selection decisions); and the government fund more New Zealanders to study medicine.
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