[Attitude of medical students to the preventive and social aspects of medical education and practice].

This paper reports on a study carried out in the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous National University of Mexico to discover the attitudes of a group of students toward the preventive and social aspects of medicine, and their own professional aspirations. It was found that these students were aware of the importance of these aspects, and that they inclined by preference to the practice of a clinical specialty. No correlation was found between the patterns of the students' professional aspirations and their attitudes. The authors feel this could mean that attitudes are determined by the overall influence of the society, but the aspirations by the structure of the labor market and the prevailing medical practice model. It is suggested that a similar survey be done of the same group of students at the completion of their studies to determine the possible effects of the educational process on their attitudes. Comments are made and recommendations put forward for solving methodological problems that arise in studies of this type.