J.T. King Jr is chief, Section of Neurosurgery, Surgical Service, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut, and associate professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. N.R. Angoff is associate dean, Student Affairs, and associate professor, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. J.N. Forrest Jr is director, Office of Student Research, and professor, Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. A.C. Justice is staff physician, Division of General Internal Medicine, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, Connecticut, professor, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, and professor, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut.
Acad Med. 2018 Jun;93(6):911-919. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002052.
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education mandates instruction in research conduct, and many U.S. medical schools require students to complete a research project. All Yale School of Medicine (YSM) graduating students submit a research thesis, and ~5% are awarded highest honors. Gender disparities exist in areas related to physician research productivity, including academic rank, research funding, and publications. The authors asked whether gender disparities exist for medical student research.
The authors conducted a retrospective review of 1,120 theses submitted by graduating medical students from 2003 to 2015 at YSM and collected data on gender, mentoring, research type, sponsoring department, and other characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression modeling examined gender differences in medical student research awards.
Women authored 50.9% of theses, but earned only 30.9% of highest honors awards (OR 0.41; 95% CI: 0.23, 0.74). Among factors associated with increased receipt of highest honors that differed by gender, men were more likely than women to work with a mentor with a history of three or more thesis honorees, take a fifth year of study, secure competitive research funding, undertake an MD-master of health science degree, and conduct laboratory research (all P < .001). After adjustment for these factors, and for underrepresented in medicine status and sponsoring department, women remained less likely to receive highest honors (OR 0.51; 95% CI: 0.27, 0.98).
Women YSM students were less likely to receive highest honors for medical research. Gender disparities in postgraduate biomedical research success may start during undergraduate medical education.
医学教育联络委员会要求进行研究实践教学，许多美国医学院要求学生完成研究项目。所有耶鲁大学医学院（YSM）的毕业生都要提交研究论文，其中约有 5%获得最高荣誉。在与医生研究成果相关的领域，包括学术地位、研究经费和出版物，都存在性别差异。作者询问是否存在医学生研究方面的性别差异。
作者对 2003 年至 2015 年在 YSM 毕业的 1120 名医学生提交的论文进行了回顾性分析，收集了性别、指导、研究类型、赞助部门和其他特征的数据。多元逻辑回归模型分析了医学生研究奖中的性别差异。
女性撰写了 50.9%的论文，但仅获得了 30.9%的最高荣誉奖（OR 0.41；95%CI：0.23，0.74）。在与性别相关的增加获得最高荣誉的因素中，与女性相比，男性更有可能与有三位或以上论文获奖者的导师合作，延长一年学习时间，获得有竞争力的研究经费，攻读医学博士-健康科学硕士学位，并进行实验室研究（均 P <.001）。在调整了这些因素以及医学领域代表性不足和赞助部门之后，女性获得最高荣誉的可能性仍然较低（OR 0.51；95%CI：0.27，0.98）。
YSM 的女性学生获得医学研究最高荣誉的可能性较小。在研究生生物医学研究成功方面的性别差异可能在本科医学教育期间就开始出现。
