Grbic Douglas, Jones David J, Case Steven T
D. Grbic is lead research specialist, Policy Research Studies, Research and Data Programs, Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC. D.J. Jones is senior associate dean for admissions, professor of anesthesiology and pharmacology, and executive director, Health Science Pipeline Programs, University of Texas School of Medicine at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. S.T. Case is associate dean for medical school admissions and professor of biochemistry, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi.
Acad Med. 2015 Jul;90(7):953-60. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000653.
Socioeconomic status (SES) impacts educational opportunities and outcomes which explains, in part, why the majority of medical students come from the upper two quintiles of family income. A two-factor SES indicator based on parental education (E) and occupation (O) has recently been established by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). This study validates this two-factor indicator as applicable to the national pool of medical school applicants.
The AAMC SES EO indicator classifies applicants into five ordered groups (EO-1 through EO-5) based on four aggregated categories of parental education and two aggregated categories of occupation. The EO indicator was applied to the 2012 American Medical College Application Service applicant pool. The authors examined the associations that the EO category had with six additional and independent indicators of socioeconomic (dis)advantage, as well as with demographic and educational characteristics and life experiences.
The EO indicator could be applied to 89% of the 2012 applicants. The lower the EO category, the stronger the association with each of the six indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage. Other notable, but weaker, associations with the EO indicator were differences by age, race/ethnicity, performance on the Medical College Admission Test, community college attendance, and certain self-reported life experiences.
The EO indicator provides a simple, intuitive, widely applicable, and valid means for identifying applicants from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. This affords admissions committees an additional factor to consider during the holistic review of applicants in order to further diversify the medical school class.
社会经济地位（SES）会影响教育机会和成果，这在一定程度上解释了为什么大多数医学生来自家庭收入处于前两个五分位数的群体。美国医学院协会（AAMC）最近建立了一个基于父母教育程度（E）和职业（O）的双因素SES指标。本研究验证了这个双因素指标适用于全国医学院校申请者群体。
AAMC SES EO指标根据父母教育程度的四个汇总类别和职业的两个汇总类别将申请者分为五个有序组（EO - 1至EO - 5）。EO指标应用于2012年美国医学院申请服务的申请者群体。作者研究了EO类别与社会经济（不利）优势的另外六个独立指标以及人口统计学、教育特征和生活经历之间的关联。
EO指标可应用于2012年89%的申请者。EO类别越低，与社会经济不利的六个指标中的每一个的关联就越强。与EO指标的其他显著但较弱的关联包括年龄、种族/族裔、医学院入学考试成绩、社区大学就读情况以及某些自我报告的生活经历方面的差异。
EO指标为识别来自社会经济弱势背景的申请者提供了一种简单、直观、广泛适用且有效的方法。这为招生委员会在对申请者进行全面审查时提供了一个额外的考虑因素，以便进一步使医学院班级多样化。
