ArticleJAAPA : official journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants2025
The effect of education debt on PAs' specialty choice or preference.
Article in JAAPA : official journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Economic Implications of Audiology Student Debt for Workforce Sustainability.Seminars in hearing · 2026Review
- Private Practice, Public Debt, and the Fine Print of Lifetime Earnings: A Reassessment of Model Assumptions in Pediatric Cardiology.Pediatric cardiology · 2026Article
- Understanding burnout in physician assistants/associates through the lens of Conservation of Resources theory.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThis study investigated educational debt, repayment strategies, and other factors potentially related to recently certified physician associates/assistants' (PAs') choice or preference for primary care versus all other specialties.
methodsA national dataset from 2023 of recently certified PAs was used to conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses. Analyses were conducted separately for PAs who had accepted a clinical position and those who had not accepted a clinical position.
resultsOverall, 88% of respondents reported having educational debt, with 13.5% owing $200,000 or more. PAs from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine had accrued higher educational debt than their counterparts. Educational debt was significantly associated with specialty choices/preferences: PAs with higher debt were more likely to opt for nonprimary care specialties. Qualitative analyses revealed that PAs rely on different strategies for repaying their loans, depending on whether they choose or prefer primary care or nonprimary care specialties.
conclusionsThese results suggest that educational debt plays a role in specialty selection, but other factors also are significant.
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Registered trials
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