Melanin Medics Research Network, Luton, UK.
Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Jun 6;23(1):412. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04412-z.
The number of academic clinicians in the UK is declining and there are demographic inequalities in the clinical-academic workforce. Increased research productivity by medical students is believed to reduce future attrition in the clinical-academic workforce. Thus, this study investigated the association between student demographics and research productivity amongst UK medical students.
This is a national multicentre cross-sectional study of UK medical students in the 2020/21 academic year. We appointed one student representative per medical school, and they disseminated a 42-item online questionnaire over nine weeks, through departmental emails and social media advertisements. The outcome measures were: (i) publications (yes/no) (ii) number of publications (iii) number of first-authored publications (iv) abstract presentation (yes/no). We utilised multiple logistic and zero-inflated Poisson regression analyses to test for associations between the outcome measures and predictor variables at a 5% significance level.
There are 41 medical schools in the UK. We received 1573 responses from 36 UK medical schools. We failed to recruit student representatives from three newly formed medical schools, whilst two medical schools prohibited us from sending the survey to their students. Women had lower odds of having a publication (OR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.33-0.85) and on average had fewer first-author publications than men (IRR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.37-0.89). Compared to white students, mixed-ethnicity students had greater odds of having a publication (OR: 3.06, 95% CI: 1.67-5.59), an abstract presentation (OR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.37-3.26), and on average had a greater number of publications (IRR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.02-3.43). On average, students who attended independent UK secondary schools had a higher rate of first-author publications compared to those that attended state secondary schools (IRR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.23-3.15).
Our data suggest that there are gender, ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in research productivity among UK medical students. To tackle this, and potentially improve diversity in clinical academia, we recommend that medical schools should facilitate targeted high quality research mentorship, funding and training, especially for under-represented-in-medicine students.
英国学术临床医生的数量正在减少，临床学术人员队伍存在人口统计学上的不平等。人们相信，增加医学生的研究成果产出将减少未来临床学术人员队伍的人员流失。因此，本研究调查了英国医学生的学生人口统计学特征与研究成果产出之间的关联。
这是一项针对英国医学生的全国性多中心横断面研究，研究对象为 2020/21 学年的医学生。我们每所医学院都任命了一名学生代表，他们通过系里的电子邮件和社交媒体广告，在九周的时间内分发了一份包含 42 个项目的在线问卷。研究的结果衡量标准包括：（i）是否发表过论文（是/否）（ii）发表论文的数量（iii）第一作者发表论文的数量（iv）摘要展示（是/否）。我们利用多元逻辑和零膨胀泊松回归分析，在 5%的显著性水平上检验了结果衡量标准与预测变量之间的关联。
英国有 41 所医学院。我们从 36 所英国医学院收到了 1573 份回复。有三所新成立的医学院未能成功招聘到学生代表，而两所医学院则禁止我们向其学生发送调查。与男性相比，女性发表论文的可能性更低（OR：0.53，95%CI：0.33-0.85），并且平均第一作者发表的论文数量也少于男性（IRR：0.57，95%CI：0.37-0.89）。与白人学生相比，混合族裔学生发表论文的可能性更高（OR：3.06，95%CI：1.67-5.59），摘要展示的可能性也更高（OR：2.12，95%CI：1.37-3.26），平均发表论文的数量也更多（IRR：1.87，95%CI：1.02-3.43）。平均而言，就读于英国独立中学的学生比就读于国立中学的学生更有可能成为第一作者（IRR：1.97，95%CI：1.23-3.15）。
我们的数据表明，英国医学生的研究成果产出存在性别、种族和社会经济不平等。为了解决这个问题，并有可能改善临床学术界的多样性，我们建议医学院应该为代表性不足的医学生提供有针对性的高质量研究指导、资金和培训。
